Guided bird watching in Spain - Page 6 of 6 - Valencia Birding

Guided bird watching at Albufera de Valencia

Last Friday I had pleasure of providing a day of guided bird watching at Albufera de Valencia for two clients from Poland. As nature lovers and experienced birders, they are members of a bird protection organisation, and they wanted to discover the species of Valencia and its wetlands. After I collected them from their hotel, we went to a reserve and restricted area where we spent most of the morning. At this time of the year this reserve is magnificent, and we enjoyed great views of a colony of Common and Sandwich Terns. We also enjoyed seeing the very rare Mabled Duck with 5 ducklings, together with a large group of Greater Flamingo, right in front of the hide. The second stop was in the forest, where Wren, Serin, Spotted Flycatcher, Sardinian Warbler and Firecrest welcomed us. To end the trip we went to the rice paddies. Now the fields have been planted, Glossy Ibis, Herons and Egrets where everywhere. We also enjoyed the display of the Hoopoe and finally one of the day´s highlights – the Purple Swamphen. It had been a classic Albufera day, with a species list that…

Steppe Birds of Spain

Last week, we provided a guided birding trip for a couple from Yorkshire, UK. They were keen nature lovers and were very interested to see the steppe birds of Spain whilst they were on holiday in Valencia. Having collected them from their hotel in the city, we made the journey inland and up onto the high plateau of Castilla de la Mancha. After a morning coffee stop and a briefing on the species that we were likely to see, we headed across the rolling plains where had great views of Crested Lark and Calandra Lark. The first lagoon of the day held Common Tern, Whiskered Tern and Gull-billed Tern and Greater Flamingo. We enjoyed some typical sounds of summer, including the song of Skylark and Corn Bunting. We spent the rest of the morning at another great spot, a lagoon fringed with reed beds. Here we had wildfowl including Shelduck, Gadwall and Red-crested Pochard. We also enjoyed two especially colourful species, the Hoopoe and Bee Eater. Before we headed up onto the higher steppe, we made a brief stop at a small lake where we had views of…