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Birding -
Bird Watching in Valencia and Alicante - Costa Blanca |
The Local mountain
and coast provide great opportunities for birding,
also within a couple hours drive are all the following
locations. You will also see many swallows and
other birds within the village - in spring the dawn
chorus is a joy to behold. We've seen hoopoe in
the Toix area near Calpe,
and raptors such as the Bonelli's Eagle.
Among the
most interesting species that you can find the
wetlands along the coast are the Marbled Teal,
White-headed Duck, Greater Flamingo, Red-crested
Pochard, Purple Swamp-Hen, Moustached Warbler, Bearded
Tit, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, ... the last
two are spring / summer visitors. The teal and
the duck are the most representative species. |
Albufera`s Natural
Park on the central coast of Valencia (to
the south of the city). Internationally important
wetland is good for herons, ducks, waders and gulls.
Thousands of ducks over-winter at the Albufera ,
feeding by night in the rice-fields and resting
in the daylight hours in the La Mata del Fang protected
area. During migration thousands of shorebirds
can be seen stopping over in the neatly arranged
rice-fields.
The Racó de l`Olla is
another reserve, important for breeding terns (Common
Tern, Sandwich Tern, Little Tern and Gull-billed
Tern ) and some waders (such as Avocet).
The heronries with Night Heron Nycticorax
nycticorax , Squacco Heron Ardeola
ralloides , Cattle Egret, Little
Egret Egretta garzetta , Grey
Heron Ardea cinerea and Purple
Heron Ardea purpurea. Also the Bearded
Tit Panurus biarmicus .
A little to the south, the coast of Cullera is an
interesting Mediterranean site for seabirds. The winter and migration periods
are the best times to see some pelagic and rare birds. From here, in winter,
it is possible to see Balearic and Mediterranean Shearwater Puffinus
mauretanicus & Puffinus yelkouan and some sea ducks (Common
Eider and Common and Surf Scoter). In spring Cory`s
Shearwater Caleonectris diomedea fly past and, throughout
the year, the omnipresent Yellow-legged Gull Larus cachinnans rests
on the beach or loafs on the sea.
Adjacent to the northwest of
the Alicante`s province
at the Carrascal de la Font Rotja we
can to see a variety of evergreen and deciduous forest
species; the area is interesting for woodland birds.
This Natural Park is a relatively well protected
site for conserved mountain forest with typical Mediterranean
plants. Warblers (specially of the
genus Sylvia ); Tits and Treecreepers share
the habitat with some diurnal and nocturnal raptors
(Golden, Short-toed, Booted and Bonelli`s
Eagles and Scops, Eagle, Little, Tawny and Long-eared
Owls). The area also is recommended for European
Roller, Golden Oriole, Red-rumped
Swallow Hirundo daurica and the
secretive Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin Cercotrichas
galactotes . |

Bonelli's
Eagle

Hoopoe
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Driving to Villena you
can see Lesser Kestrel Falco
naumanni , where a project to reintroduce this
falcon has already started in the village. On the
seacliffs of the Penyal d`Ifac and
in the Montgó Natural Parks in Calpe breed Pallid
Swifts Apus pallidus and some
pelagic seabird species (European Storm-petrels and Shag).
On the South coast of Alicante one
can find the El Hondo de Elche and
the Salinas de Santa Pola Natural
Parks.
El Hondo reservoir
is the best place for two globally threatened ducks,
the Marbled Duck (with 90% of the
European population) and the White-headed
Duck Oxyura leucocephala with
recent peak counts of 4.000 birds during the breeding
season. This wetland is also important for wintering
ducks and other waterbirds and for breeding herons,
waders and terns. Here is another place to see that
elusive Passerine the Bearded Tit.
The neighbouring Salinas de Santa Pola (salt
extraction) is best for migrating and breeding shorebirds,
terns and gulls (Slender-billed Gull);
with permanently high numbers of Flamingos Phoenicopterus
rubber , which nest in some years.


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