Yesterday I provided a birding and nature photography trip for a client from Italy. It was his second trip to Valencia and he wanted to photograph some of the fabulous bird species of the Albufera de Valencia Natural Park.
I collected him from his hotel in the city of Valencia where he´s spending a week´s holiday with his family. As he´s a keen wildlife photographer, he´d contacted Valencia Birding to arrange a day trip which would be close to the city whilst visiting some of the areas natural spaces.
At this time of the year, the bird life in l´Albufera is distributed in different areas of the park, depending on which rice fields have been ploughed, thus influencing food availability. So, our first stop was in the western part of the Natural Park, where we found an amazing sight – over 2,000 flamingos, plus thousands of gulls, egrets, herons and glossy ibis.
After this wonderful spectacle, we visited a protected reserve area with a magnificent biodiversity. Species included Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit and Greenshank.
Next stop was in the Devesa forest, a natural native Mediterranean pine forest. We watched and photographed many passerines and a colony of Night Herons, before enjoying lunch by the sea.
Finally to end a great day, we went to another reserve area in the south of the park, which is home to a large population of Purple Swamphens. A great trip, with good weather and some fantastic views of wonderful species, it had been a pleasure to guide Guialuca for the day.
Species list :
Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard, Booted Eagle, Kestrel, Mallard, Shoveler, Red-Crested Pochard, Teal, Pintail, Gadwall, Moorhen, Coot, Purple Swamphen, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Grey Heron, Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, Lapwing, Common Snipe, Black-winged Stilt, Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Black-headed Gull, Audouin´s Gull, Lesser black-backed Gull, Crag Martin, Crested Lark, Hoopoe, Blackbird, Common Starling, Tree Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Serin, Chiffchaff, Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Stonechat, Black Redstart, Robin.