Birding holiday in Valencia

This is one of a series of 4 reports that cover a 4-day birding holiday in Valencia that we recently designed and provided for a client from London, UK.  Charles, a young but experienced and knowledgable birder had contacted us earlier in the year to explore the possibilities of designing a bespoke birding break.  Together, we designed a trip for him.  He opted to stay in Valencia city, but we put together a plan that included guided birding trips to diverse habitats including steppe, forest, mountains, coast and wetlands. This report covers “Day 1” which was a day on the steppe and lagoons of Castilla de la Mancha.  We left Valencia city centre at around 8am and in less than 90 minutes drive we were up on the steppe.  The weather was perfect for birding if not unseasonably warm for December. After the usual coffee stop, our first birding spot was a relatively high vantage point overlooking the rolling fields and wide open space of this wonderful region.  At over 900 metres in altitude, it can be a harsh place in which to live and work, but its bird life…

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January 2016 Bulletin

Introduction We´d like to begin this bulletin as usual by wishing everyone a very happy and safe New Year. We hope that 2015 was a good birding year for you all and that 2016 will bring even more pleasures. Although the time has passed extremely quickly, it´s now a year since Yanina joined Valencia Birding, and together we´ve made huge progress. We´d like to briefly review what´s been a great year for us and to provide you with an update of our news and developments. To help us to maximize the levels of service and experience that our clients enjoy, we´ve made some additional investments this year. This includes a recent new vehicle, as well as some upgrades to binoculars and cameras. As always, in 2015 we had the pleasure of meeting some great clients from all over the World, and have enjoyed some superb birding trips together. We´ve also been especially privileged to welcome back many returning clients, some for their third return visit. Trip Advisor Our clients are absolutely central to all that we do, and whilst we´re on that subject, we´d like to extend a heart-felt thanks…

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Birding trips for families in Valencia

We always are keen to provide birding trips for families in Valencia. Last Friday Dave and I had the pleasure to provide a guided bird watching trip to Albufera de Valencia for a family from England. Steve is an experienced birder, and he and his wife were visiting his son Adam in Valencia where he is studying. After we collected them from their apartment we went to Albufera de Valencia Natural Park as they interested in seeing the bird life of the region´s wetlands. First stop was in a reserve area, after a short walk through the forest we were in the hide with great views of hundreds of waders, Black-winged Stilts, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Grey Plovers… all of which suddenly took flight when a Marsh Harrier came in low over the lagoon. The next hide was located in front of  another lagoon that held plenty of waterfowl including Teal, Red Crested Pochard and Shoveler.  We also had a great view of a Black-necked Grebe.  Before leaving the centre we decided to climb the observation tower to enjoy greats views of l’Albufera lake and the Devesa forest. Next stop was…

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Bittern in Valencia

    This video of a Bittern in Valencia was taken during a guided birding trip to Albufera de Valencia with clients of USA. It is fantastic to see this endangered species thriving here in this internationally important wetland.            

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2 Day Birding Break in Valencia

Yanina and I have recently provided a couple of days of guided birding for clients from Paris.  They had planned a winter break in this beautiful city and had previously contacted us to arrange a 2 day birding break in Valencia as part of their trip. We´d discussed the best options for this time of year, and had agreed upon a day in Albufera and the coastal wetlands, followed by a day exploring the steppe and lagoons of Castilla de la Mancha.  They were well travelled and experienced birders and were eager to see what this area offers. The truth is that we had a couple of fabulous days…both of which held some amazing surprises! Day 1 – Albufera & Coastal Wetlands Having collected Christine and Alastair from central Valencia, we drove to Albufera where together with Yanina, we went into one of the park´s restricted reserve areas.  Whilst driving through the flooded rice paddies, we had great views of Glossy Ibis, Great Egret and Southern Grey Shrike, indeed a good start to the day. Once in the reserve, we stopped to scan over a small lagoon and enjoyed views…

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