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Birding around Valencia

Discussion in 'Spain' started by Bele, 20 Oct 2017.

  1. Bele

    Bele Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    4 Jul 2008
    Posts:
    1,483
    Location:
    Swansea , UK
    I have just spent 5 nights in Valencia , a very impressive Spanish city . The weather was very warm and sunny every day .

    The main focus of the trip was 2 days of birding with the local company Valencia Birding .

    We spent a day around the Albufera wetlands with Englishman David . We were taken into a private reserve which also functions as a reed-bed water purification system . Later in the day we explored woodland and a small lake very near the coast . A total of 55 bird species were recorded , a few highlights were purple swamphen , Iberian grey shrike , black-necked grebe , white-headed duck , red-crested pochard , Audouin's gull , Kentish plover , black-winged stilt and booted eagle . There were very many cattle , little and great egrets , grey herons and glossy ibis as well as marsh harriers over most marsh areas . The lake visited in the afternoon was popular with the public and the small waders feeding around the edge were very tame , we were only metres away from dunlin , sanderling , little stint and ringed plover .

    The second day was spent with Argentinian bird enthusiast Yanina who had excellent English , a total of 40 bird species were recorded .. We drove out to the Steppes where the scenery was spectacular . We were lucky to find flocks of great and little bustard and black-bellied sandgrouse . Birs were not easy to find in this vast landscape but we also found little owl , crested lark , serin and rock sparrow .A number of wetland areas were visited , greater flamingo in varying numbers were present on all of them , more white-headed duck were also seen .

    In the parks of Valencia I found a couple of hoopoe , ring-neck parakeets and red-masked conure ( I think that is what they were ) were also seen . There were lots of white and grey wagtail in the BioParc.