Alicante/Valencia region - will swap information for food (1 Viewer)

Hi - Will be in the Alicante region from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd of June (ie next week).

Any local inside information on birding sites in the region would be most welcome - and if you are local to the area and would like to meet up, you would be very welcome to some hospitality!

Thanks!

Andrew

A PM to BF member Jules Sykes might be productive - see http://www.olivaramatours.com/

Nice one, will do that Stuart

hi - there are numerous salt flats adjacent to the sea along the coast from Alicante city south to the Mar Menor - many have wooden walkways and pre constructed hides (wooden "sheds" and towers)....flamingos etc

Thanks martin - hope you don't mind if I PM you.

Wow, what a coincidence pianoman. Me and my girlfriend just returned from Guardamar del Segura last week (I was there from 8th-19th) where her grandparents have an apartment.

I too saw shrikes, Woodchat and Great Grey [EDIT: apparently I saw "Southern Grey" - how does anyone keep up with these taxonomic splits!!!), in the Guardamar dunes, which were lifers for me, although as it wasn't a "birding" holiday I was pretty much reduced to what I could see in the local parks while the missus was having a siesta!

Next time I'm there I plan to wangle a day at the marshes and salt lakes. I had a 5 minute taster when our taxi stopped for 5 minutes so I could see the flamingoes, egrets, terns etc, and I'm already aching to go back for a better look.

Biggest surprise for me was seeing a pair of Black Wheatears (another life list species; yes, it is a pitiful list) nesting up at Guardamar Castle.

Whilst in this area on Holiday over the last couple of weeks i was able to get some very brief birding in.

Best of the bunch for me was Booted Eagle in the Sierra du Espunua, Egyptian Vulture near Elche and Stone Curlew in Campoverde.

The Stone Curlew were really nice as we could sit in the rear of Peta's bar and look over the valley at Dusk to a Stone Curlew song contest.

Cheers

Nev

I have some images from this region on http://www.mydigishots.com/series/spainbirds. I also added a species list from these two trips. Lots to see! I have to add my last trip, but it was more or less the same with some marbled ducks as a special, a good kingfisher sighting (and shot) and two little bitterns.