Trip Reports

7 Day Guided Birding Trip – Day 3 (Wetlands of Alicante) The plan for our third day was to drive to the coast at the southern end of the province of Alicante and visit one of the region´s premium wetland reserves. After a drive of around one hour from Banyeres de Mariola, we arrived at the reserve. Although a little breezy, the weather was fine. After a brief chat with the reserve warden we looked out onto the first small lagoon where we were fortunate to see some of the Red Knobbed Coots that are part of a release programme.…

Day 2 – Mountains & High Forest. Following yesterday´s long day and many hours of travelling for our clients, we designed the second day such that there would be very little time spent in the car.  Within a very short drive of Banyeres de Mariola are some wonderful high forested hills and rocky peaks.  They were to be our chosen habitats for today. At over 1000 metres above sea level, the high forests of the region have beautifully clean air and provide habitat for some very special birds.  Strangely enough, in this area you´re more likely to see a Crested…

The huge habitat diversity of the Valencia region of Spain allows us to provide a superb 7 days birding holiday.  In late February of this year, we were fortunate to deliver exactly that for Gourmet Birds, a well established specialist bird watching holiday provider from UK. We´d worked very closely with them to design a bespoke trip, taking in some of the region´s best birding venues and carefully selected accommodation to hopefully result in a memorable trip. Day 1 – Salt Marshes and Lagoons The group arrived relatively early into Alicante airport.  Therefore, without wanting to make the first day…

Early this week we had a great day of guided birding with a lovely couple from UK.  They were taking a break in Valencia and wanted to see the diverse bird life of this superb area.  As the spring migration is now well and truly underway, we visited one of our favourite coastal wetlands, a site that offers crucial resting and feeding grounds for thousands of migratory birds. This time of year is always very exciting as new species are arriving daily.  Today was no exception.  Some of the most interesting resident species included Penduline Tit, Booted Eagle, Purple Swamphen…

February of this year proved to be a very busy month, with many clients from Northern Europe having organised winter birding trips with us.  The combination of a little sunshine, some fascinating winter visitors and the anticipation of early spring migrants can make late February a very attractive time to visit the Valencia region. One of our trips was provided for the Ornithological Society of Northern Ireland.  We had designed a 3 day trip that took in diverse habitat including steppe, coastal wetlands and the Natural Park of Albufera de Valencia.  They had spent a few nights at the beautifully…

Last week I provided a birding and nature photography trip for a family from Maine, USA.  They were visiting Valencia for the first time and they also wanted to discover the nature and birdlife close to Valencia and photograph some of the fabulous bird species of the Albufera de Valencia Natural Park. At this time of the year, the bird life in l´Albufera is distributed in different areas of the park, depending on which rice fields have been ploughed, thus influencing food availability.  So, our first stop was in the western part of the Natural Park, where we found an…