Trip Reports

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of providing a trip to the coastal wetlands of Valencia for two experienced birders from Scotland. After I collected them from Valencia city where were staying, we drove to a nearby reserve area. This time of the year is magnificent in terms of diversity of species. We began the day with a walk by the sea crossing several brackish lagoons where we saw Red-crested Pochards, Little Grebes and lots of Whiskered Terns displaying and fishing.     The first stop was on a platform where we had great views of a Little…

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of providing a 2-day birding break to the steppe and to the coastal wetlands for returning clients from UK.  Joy and Margaret are experienced birders who had been birding with us before at Albufera de Valencia and they wanted to explore new habitats and areas close to Valencia City where they were staying. Day 1 – Steppe Having collected them from their hotel in the city, we made the journey inland and up onto the high steppe area close to Valencia.  After a morning coffee stop and a briefing on the species…

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…

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] Continue reading

Last week, I enjoyed a fabulous day of birding at the Valencian Coastal Wetlands with returning clients from UK.  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, farmland, reed beds and fresh water lagoons. As both John and Jackie are owl lovers, the first planned stop was to see Little Owls and Barn Owls, although we were delayed by 8 Booted Eagles which were flying around very close to us. After a short drive, we started a pleasent walk…

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…