A few weeks ago I provided a birding trip on a rainy day to Albufera de Valencia for two clients from England. They were staying at El Parador Golf & Resort at El Saler which is inside the natural park and they were keen to explore the birdlife of the different ecosystems of the area.
Despite the forecast, we were looking forward to the day.
First, we drove to a small reserve area in the south of the park, to look for one of the target species of the day… Purple Swamphen and we succeeded, we enjoyed awesome views of many birds.
We agreed we were going to have a challenging day trying to escape from the rain and luckily we had begun well.
Purple Swamphen
We continued driving to our next stop when we had suddenly to stop.. an Osprey was perched on a pylon, giving magnificent views.
Next stop was at the main reserve of the natural park, it was early autumn so a great time for waders! After a short walk through the forest, we arrived at an observatory where we had amazing views of Black-tailed Godwit, Black-winged Stilt, Grey Plover, Avocet and many more species including waterfowl.
Avocet
Next stop was in the village of El Palmar to get our picnic lunch, plus some great views of a Booted Eagle.
Booted Eagle
Once in the picnic area, we had lunch with hundreds of Glossy Ibis, Great White Egret, Marsh Harrier and another Osprey. We couldn’t ask for more during our picnic!
Glossy Ibis
We were succeeding in our mission to escape the rain while we were birding, so we decided to end the day at a lake beside the sea, which turned out to be a good decision, as we had excellent views of Black Tern, Slender-billed Gull, Audouin’s Gull and Black-necked Grebe.
Although it had been a challenging day and we´d had to plan our movements carefully to avoid the rain, we´d had some great birds, all in even better company.
The species list of the day included…
Common Shelduck, Northern Shoveler, Mallard, Greater Flamingo, Great Crested Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Collared Dove, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Western Swamphen, Black-winged Stilt, Kentish Plover, Common Ringed Plover, Ruff, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Little Stint, Green Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Slender-billed Gull, Black-headed Gull, Audouin’s Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Caspian Tern, Black Tern, Whiskered Tern, Great Cormorant, Grey Heron, Great White, Egret, Little Egret, Glossy Ibis, Osprey, Booted Eagle, Western Marsh Harrier, Common Kingfisher, Common Kestrel, Iberian Grey Shrike, Common Magpie, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Wren, Cetti’s Warbler, Willow, Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, Savi’s Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Eurasian Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, European Robin, European Pied Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Eurasian Blackbird, Common Starling, Spotless Starling, Western Yellow Wagtail, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, House Sparrow.