Mallorca - late April & early May 2026
Lat year in September, with my wife Sara, we were guests of Evelyn Tewes and the Fundación Vida Silvestre Mediterránia (FVSM) of which she is the Director staying on the Ariant estate in the NE of the island . It was a fabulous trip with lots of opportunities to view and sketch scavenging Black and Griffon Vultures, watch the elegant flight of Eleanora's Falcons, and sit by stony fields with walled and shrubby borders filled with smaller migrating and resident birds.
In late April and early May we'll be visiting Ariant again, this time I will be 'Artist in Residence'. The plan is to develop with Evelyn and others ways of creating creative opportunities to support the work of FVSM and generally help Evelyn in here work on the estate.
For the 'Artist in Residence' adventure last year we were lucky enough to be with Mark and Mo Constantine who have a have a long relationship with the island visiting many times over many decades. |
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A few days in 2025 I went up to the sea cliffs on either side of the house at Ariant. I was desperate to see Eleanora's Falcon - my time up 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.
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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!
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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. |
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© Bruce Pearson 2026. All rights reserved