Last week I was delighted to provide a guided birding trip for a couple from my home city of Sheffield! Both keen birders, they were on holiday here and wanted to spend a day enjoying Valencia´s coastal wetlands in Spring.
Having collected them from the city centre, we made the short journey to one of the area´s coastal nature reserves where we began the day with a walk along the beach, looking at both the sea and a series of coastal lagoons. Our first stop gave us views of Common Reed Warbler, Little Grebe, Glossy Ibis and Zitting Cisticola.
We then spent a little time carefully scanning a lagoon that held White Headed Duck, Greater Flamingo and Black Winged Stilt. The surrounding reed beds gave sightings of Great Reed Warbler and Little Bittern.
We continued our walk along the coast, watching Little Terns and Collared Pratincoles passing overhead before stopping to get good views of Audouin´s Gull.
Little Bittern
Our next stop was at a hide from where we observed a tern colony. Most of the Little Terns and Sandwich Terns were still incubating but the Common Terns almost all had chicks, as did Black Winged Stilts and Avocet. Careful scanning of the gulls gave views of Slender Billed Gull and whilst watching these, we also found Kentish Plover and Little Ringed Plover.
Little Tern
Our walk then took us through an area of reeds and pasture where we saw Yellow Wagtail, Marsh Harrier and Crested Lark. The weather was warming up by now so we opted to have lunch in a hide, taking advantage of the shade. Looking over another lagoon gave sightings of Great Egret plus huge numbers of Swift feeding overhead.
As we walked through an area of semi-wooded fields we saw Hoopoe, Stonechat, Serin, Cattle Egret and Turtle Dove. Our day was brought to a close with a stop at a picnic area not far from the coast from where we were delighted to get good views of a Short Toed Eagle.
Short Toed Eagle
The time seemed to pass all too quickly and we soon had to head back to Valencia, but it had been a privilege to provide this trip for such a lovely couple….great company, fantastic birds and the chance to chat about Sheffield!
The species list for the day included…
Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Pochard, White Headed Duck, Mallard, Avocet, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Little Bittern, Black Winged Stilt, Collared Pratincole, Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo, Kentish Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Cormorant, Audouin’s Gull, Black Headed Gull, Slender Billed Gull, Yellow Legged Gull, Common Tern, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern, Whiskered Tern, Barn Swallow, Swift, Pallid Swift, House Martin, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch, Serin, Great Reed Warbler, Reed Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Yellow Wagtail, Magpie, Hoopoe, Spotless Starling, Stonechat, Crested Lark, Wood Pigeon, Turtle Dove, Collared Dove, Kestrel, Marsh Harrier, Short Toed Eagle.
Written by David Warrington.
Bird Watching Guide at Valencia Birding.