Holidays - Alicante - Valencia - Bird Watching Tours

Birding during migration time in Valencia.

We feel very fortunate this year to have already welcomed back many returning clients, and today was such a day. Rab and Jan had spent a couple of days with us last year and had returned this year with a friend to discover the bird life of one of our wetland reserves. They drove up from the Costa Blanca and met us close to Valencia, from where we made the short drive to the reserve. After a morning coffee by the beach, looking out onto a very calm Mediterranean, we began our walk through the reserve. This was to be a day when we could see migration in progress! It´s always a very special time of year as we can see late departing winter visitors, arrivals of summer visitors and passage migrants that often stop at our wetlands to feed before moving further north. The day began with sightings of Audouin´s Gull, Blackcap, Zitting Cisticola, Yellow Wagtail (both the iberiae and cinereocapilla sub-species) and Sardinian Warbler. We then enjoyed watching wildfowl including Tufted Duck, Red Crested Pochard, Shoveler and Gadwall. As we were quietly looking over an area of reed…

Spotted Crake in Valencia

The spring migration period is fascinating here in Valencia. There are currently so many fabulous species arriving for the breeding season or just passing through on their journey north. This week we´re seeing Purple Heron, Collared Pratincole, Reed Warbler, Alpine Swift, Red Rumped Swallow all arriving at our local sites. Passage migrants seen this week include Osprey, Garganey and this beautiful Spotted Crake. …and here´s a brief video clip of the same bird : [wpdevart_youtube]cVlA3Hx58go[/wpdevart_youtube]

5-Day Birding Holiday

We recently provided a 5-day birding holiday for a group of RSPB members from Northern Ireland. It was made more special by the fact that the leader of the group had previously attended a trip with us and had recommended us to her local group. We´d worked with Pat to design a tailor-made trip, focussing on habitat diversity, a few special target species and authentic and traditional accommodation. As such, we put together a 2-centre break. They arrived at Alicante airport on an evening flight from Belfast, where we were waiting to welcome them. After their arrival we made the easy journey up into the rural interior of Alicante Province and to their guest house for the first half of the trip, L´Alqueria del Pilar, a converted farmhouse in the village of Banyeres de Mariola. After a good night´s rest and a leisurely start we began our first day : Day 1 – Mountains The first day was designed to include very little travelling, and a walk in the mountains of the Sierra de Mariola Natural Park. The plan for the morning was a circular walk of some 5kms, through high…

Guided Bird watching trip to the Steppe

A few days ago, I was delighted to provide a guided bird watching trip to the steppe area for an experience birder from England who was very interested to see the steppe birds of Spain whilst he was on holiday in Benidorm. Having collected him from his hotel in Valencia 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 Great Bustards, Crested Lark and Calandra Lark. The next stop was in a farm area where we enjoyed some typical species including Skylark, Rock Sparrow and Corn Bunting. Before we headed up onto the higher steppe, we made a brief stop to see Granes in flight, two pairs of Little Owls and Southern Iberian Shrikes. The high steppe eventually gave us views of one of…

Winter birding at Albufera de Valencia

Yesterday, I enjoyed a fabulous day of birding at Albufera de Valencia with returning clients from the Netherlands. Although chilly and quite breezy, we enjoyed a truly wonderful day. As we only had one day, we aimed to maximise habitat diversity, taking in coastal scrub, dunes, beach, sea, rice fields, reed beds and fresh water lagoons. The day began at a reserve area where we scanned the main Albufera lake for wildfowl. We enjoyed views of Pintail, Teal, Pochard, Red Crested Pochard, Shoveler and Wigeon. We moved on to watch a smaller lagoon where we saw Black Tailed Godwit, Black Winged Stilt, Ruff and the spectacular Booted Eagle. This raptor has in recent years become a resident of the Valencia region and can often be seen in Albufera and other coastal wetland sites. Our next stop was an area of coastal scrub and grassland where we had good views of Meadow Pipit, Red Legged Partridge, Black Redstart and Sardinian Warbler. A short time spent sea watching gave views of Gannet, Razorbill, and Yellow Legged Gull whilst on the beach we enjoyed watching a small flock of Sanderling feeding by the…

January 2017 Bulletin

Another bird-packed year has passed, filled with many happy memories of special times spent with lovely people in beautiful locations, watching amazing birds. As we look forward to another new year, we´d like to begin as always by thanking you all for your support during 2016 and by wishing you a very happy 2017. General News Our day trips have continued to prove very popular, and this year we´ve been delighted to see an increase in teenagers and young people that we´ve guided. We´re very much aware that the future of birding and conservation lies in their hands, so we´re always gratified when we see such interest. Our proximity to some incredibly diverse habitat is a constant benefit to us, and we look forward to another year of guiding our clients through some of Europe´s best wetlands, salt marshes, highland forest, mountains and steppe. A point worthy of note here is that after a lengthy period of dry weather during much of the year, our region saw some incredibly high rainfall during December 2016. Although this caused some practical problems in the immediate term, it has served to boost the…