A day exploring the wetlands of Valencia.

Valencia Birding

Last week, I spent a very enjoyable day with Rod, Anita, Rudolf and Harrie, exploring the coastal wetlands of Valencia. The trip was organised as a way to celebrate Anita’s birthday, so had an extra special touch. It was their first time at this particular site, so I was determined to try and get the most from the day for them. As soon as we left the car, we saw a Serin in a roadside tree and then heard a Nightingale singing in the bushes. Our first quality view of a bird was actually of one of the day’s target species – the very elegant Audouin’s Gull. Audouin’s Gull As we began our walk alongside a series of coastal lagoons, we enjoyed views of Purple Heron, Red Crested Pochard, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe and Glossy Ibis. We opted to remain at an observation point for a while and to wait to see what would appear. Within a few moments we had views of singing Great Reed Warbler and a pair of Marsh Harriers in flight over the reeds. Movement in a small island of tall vegetation revealed a Little…

Continue reading

Autumn 2020 Bulletin

Dear all, I´d like to begin this Bulletin by sending my sincere and best wishes to you all.  2020 has provided trying times for us all, and I hope that you are all well and that you continue to remain safe and healthy. The lockdown that we all endured only served to reinforce the importance and uplifting effects of having birds around us. Like many, in the early days of the pandemic, I was confined to birding from our balcony for many weeks, and later only in the immediate neighbourhood, before being finally granted the permission to travel further. On that note, I´d like to extend my thanks to all who wrote during this time to share details of their bird sightings.  This helped to bring positivity and to underline the  fact that we´re all in this together!  My local birding experience revealed a few surprises, including the number of raptors that passed over the city of Valencia on Spring migration, including Marsh Harriers, Short Toed Eagles and Lesser Kestrel.  I found a pair of Whitethroats that were nesting right next to our apartment, and saw huge numbers of Zitting Cisticolas…

Continue reading

Improvements to Mountain Birdlife Spring & Summer Trip!

Our “Mountain Birdlife – Spring & Summer” trip has been an extremely popular choice from the moment of its creation and I´ve had many happy days with clients who have enjoyed the magnificent birds that can be seen on this outing.  However, I´m always looking to improve and evolve and one of the relatively few positives that the Corona Virus situation has given me is more time to do just that.  I´ve spent a few days exploring some new areas around the general vicinity of the sites where this trip takes us to, with a view to adding more habitat diversity.  After a few unproductive outings, my efforts were rewarded and I´m now delighted to report that I´ve been able to improve this already fabulous trip. Last week, I carried out a “test drive” using my friend John as a willing guinea pig!  We made the comfortable and very scenic journey from Valencia, and stopped briefly at our first spot to look for Bonelli´s Eagle.  After only a few moments, we had super views of a young bird in flight.  (This trip can also be adapted to include a session…

Continue reading

A Birding Break from Valencia.

I recently provided a 2-day trip for Gordon and Heather from the UK. They are very experienced birders who we met at the British Bird Fair last year.  They had planned a trip in their motorhome and wanted to include two days of birding with us when they were in the Valencia region.  We agreed on a day in the mountains and a day on the steppe. First, to the mountains… After I collected them at their campsite beside the beach we made the relaxed drive to our first stop in a quarry surrounded by natural crags too.  Our targets were Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheater, Rock Sparrow and Bonelli’s Eagle. We did succeed with most of them except for the eagle. We decided to keep going and try again on the way back. Then, after a drive up to a high peak, followed by a short walk, we arrived on the summit of a 1,000m mountain.  Here, our goal was Alpine Accentor.  Sadly, they were nowhere to be seen, so we continued with our planned route, agreeing to return to the peak in the afternoon.  When we did, they…

Continue reading

2 Day guided birding break from Valencia

A few days ago I had the pleasure to provide a 2 day guided birding trip for Norman from the UK and Urszula from Poland. Last year, Norman had visited the Valencia Region Stand at Rutland Bird Fair and after that he contacted us to book a trip. During the Bird Show we had the opportunity to talk about the different habitats and bird species , so it was easy to send him a proposal for the areas and species he was looking for. We planned to do Albufera de Valencia and the Steppe and Inland lagoons, but unfortunately they had a flight delay due to the storms that were affecting most of northern Europe.  Therefore I collected them from the airport and we headed directly to Albufera! We were determined to have a fantastic day with many lifers… and that’s what we did!! First stop was in the main reserve area of the Natural Park where we enjoyed amazing views of Flamingos, Glossy Ibis and two stunning Booted Eagles Next stop was in an observatory tower which looks over the lake and to a small reserve area. After a…

Continue reading

Winter Press Trip.

The week before Christmas, I spent four fabulous days with three of the UK´s leading writers from the birding world – Dominic Mitchell, David Chandler and David Callahan. With the support of the Tourism Department of the Valencian Comminity, Turespaña, Hotel Gran Playa Santa Pola and the Tourism Departments of the provinces of Castellon and Valencia, we designed and organised this press trip to showcase the value and attraction of the Valencia region as a winter birding destination. With additional input from Carolina Garcia (Reigos Levante), Pau Lucio (Bird Watching Spain) and Virgilio Beltran (Actio Birding), we put together a trip that took us to all three provinces and a huge diversity of habitats.  Each day had its priority species, most of which were winter visitors to the area although some special resident species were included too. On the first day, we only had a few hours as the flight arrived in Alicante in the early afternoon.  Therefore we headed straight for the saltpans of Santa Pola.  Here we soon began to list a good number of species, the highlights including Spoonbill, Purple Swamphen, Audouin´s Gull, Greater Flamingo and Osprey. …

Continue reading