Mallorca - October 2025

For the 10 days on Mallorca we were the guests of Evelyn Tewes and the Fundación Vida Silvestre Mediterránia (FVSM) of which she is the Director.  The visit was sponsored by Mark and Mo Contantine. 

Evelyn has been director of FVSM for many years and its great conservation work on the island has been generously supported by Mark and Mo who have have had a long relationship with the island visiting many times over many decades. 

A few days I went up to the sea cliffs on either side of the house at Ariant with a view to observing the spectacular Eleanora's Falcon - my time there didn't disappoint!

The falcons are absolutely beautiful birds;  long-wings brought forward with the carpals sharply rounded the flight is swift and agile with the tail appearing relatively long.   

I watched a group of Crag Martins appear in a column of rising air and they swept backwards and forwards through the column scooping insects - then suddenly an Eleanora's appeared!   In an instant the falcon flipped down towards the sea briefly out of sight before sweeping up under the martins.  Then, just as quickly, the falcon was gone!

Other sessions out drawing were focused on the vultures, both Black (or Cinereous) and Griffon Vultures.  Some I drew through a telescope as they gathered at a carcass put out for them by Foundation staff, and one time I got much closer at the Foundation headquarters away from Ariant where a handful of injured captive birds are fed right in front of a viewing hide.