In the last weekend of Februry we were lucky to provide a customized trip for Simon, an experienced birwatcher from USA.

After picking him in his Hotel, we spent our first birdwatching hours in Albufera Natural Park. Beaches, dunes, La Dehesa pinewood and rice fields.

At the end of the day we got many interesting sigthtings of gulls, egrets, raptors, shorebirds and a stunnig sunshine from the beach.

Our second day also started early as we face the challenge of walking two interesting natural areas near the city of Valencia:

  • «Marjal dels Moros», coastal wetland really well preserved and prepared for birdwatching the space included in the Natura2000 Network  
  • Sierra Calderona Natural Park a coastal mountain range covered with forests of pines and oaks alternating with crops and high mountains that reach 900 m . and deep rocky cliffs

Before this two important preserved areas I decided make a short stop in the river mouth of «Barranco del Carraixet» were we got stunning shots of Coots, Sanderlings, Black headed and Mediterranean Gulls and other small birds like Sardinian Warbler or Crag Martin. But this stop provided us two unsual species as well: Razorbill and Red-breasted merganser.

After that, we arrive to the Marjal dels Moros and walked from the beach to the reedbeds and small lagoons adding new species to our list.

Differents species of Ducks, Lapwings, Little Greebs, Marshs Harriers, Common Kestrels, Common Buzards, and  many others including a little flog of 4 Mute Swans wich arrived these marshes a couple of days before.

We left the wetland and , after a short journey , we reached the heart of the Serra Calderona Natural Park. Driving on local roads we went through different places of this protected area looking for the highlight species that could be observed in each of their different habitats. We reached one of the highest mountains in the east of the mountain range from we could even observe Columbretes islands.

We find different forests birds like Firecrest, Crested Tit, Jaw, Short-toed Treecreeper, … and even a Red Squirrel in our firts stop.
Later Raven, Trush, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Shrike and even Peregrine Falcon were added to the list before finishing the day searching for Little Owls in the farmlands even after the sunshine.