Enjoy a full days quality birding around the very best birding sites on Andalucia's Strait of Gibraltar. We have designed 3 different birding tours to meet your special wishes. The choice is yours!
Go back to nature trips in Spain?
Tour 1.
The birds & wildlife of the Strait of Gibraltar.
If you'd like to specialise in raptors for a birding day tour then we'll take you to where Booted, Bonelli's and Short-toed Eagles hunt. We can visit the haunts
of Black-winged Kite, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Osprey, Bald Ibis (introduction/hacking program.) Marsh or Montagu's Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, Lesser Kestrel, with good possibilities to look out for the rarer Atlas Long-legged Buzzard and the dashing Lanner Falcon, also a visitor from Morocco.
If you would like to see an amazing variety of waders, terns and gulls then we can look for Collared Pratincoles, Green Sandpipers, Caspian Terns, Audouin's Gulls, to name but a few or all sorts of wonderful passerines, from Orphean Warblers, Rufous Bush Robin, Rock and Cirl Buntings, to Blue Rock Thrush and Tawny Pipit as well as Black-eared Wheatear and not forgetting the Little Bustard and Stone Curlews of Cadiz province!
Tour 2.
Wetlands, River and Salt Pans - The Guadalquivir Basin (fuel surcharge of € 25)
On this birding day tour, we travel across to the town of Trebujena, just NW of Jerez de la Frontera. Here we stop and sample a local fino sherry at the town's 'bodega' (included in the day price!). From the town we descend through the vineyards of this rich sherry area and into the lower basin of the Guadalquivir and look across to the Doñana system of parks. We follow the mighty river southwards passing the networks of fish ponds where Osprey, Red and Black Kites and Booted Eagles are usually present. Checking along the canals and flat salt marshes we'll look for Stone Curlews, Thekla and Calandra Larks, Common Kingfishers and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Continuing on to the Algaida and its large pine forest is where we take lunch at a local restaurant just on the edge of one of the Doñana's Natural Parks where White-headed Duck, Marbled Teals and Black-necked Grebes and the scarce European Chameleon can also often be found during warmer months.
Butterflies can include Southern Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Spanish Festoon, Clouded Yellow, Brimstone, Marbled White and Cleopatra's as well as darters and dragonflies
After lunch we have permission and of course a key to enter and explore the salt-pans where thousands of salt crystals are 'harvested' each summer and where many exciting species of birds can also be found. Slender-billed Gulls, Caspian and other terns can be seen diving for fish and again this is a great place to watch Osprey hunting or sitting atop a pylon or tree eating a caught fish!
Most people remember the stunning site of the pink blur of hundreds of Greater Flamingos and the brilliant white of Eurasian Spoonbills and Great Egrets that feed on the many brackish lagoons within this huge area. Pied Avocets and Black-winged Stilts flash across the pools as Little Ringed Plovers scurry along the banks. From Autumn through to Spring this is also a wonderful place to watch the rare Black Storks, Bluethroats, Short-eared Owls and masses wader flock from Northern Europe.
Price details Birding Day - Tour:
Tour dates:
Every day, 7 days a week, all year round
Tour times:
From 10.00 am to 17.00 pm. Longer hours by arrangement.
Price 2015:
65 Euros p.p. (minimum 3 persons or price equivalent 195 Euros)
Includes:
Transport (Normally we meet at at La Barca de Vejer), use of telescope
Excluded:
Costs for lunch and drinks. Meal time stop over at a "local" Restaurant.
Tour party:
Minimum 3, maximum 4 fellow travellers. Larger groups by prior arrangements
Why choose a day trip with Spanish Nature?
- A highly personalised guided birding tour with a birding guide who enjoys the subject as much as you.
- Through experienced birding guide, go straight to where the birds are, no wasted time!
- Limited numbers of clients each day gives you the attention of the guide.
- Expert or beginners welcomed.
- Stopovers in any of the villages by majority consent!
- Extra time added where requested by the majority of those on tour.
For Bookings you can contact us or by telephone: +34 616 891 359 - {modal url=option=index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116:peter-jones&catid=68:guides&Itemid=239|width=450|height=520|overlay=1}Peter Jones{/modal}
Andalucia to enjoy a rich variety of wildlife, history and culture
Andalucia has a rich variety of wildlife, history and culture from the Phoenicians to the Spanish Civil War. Gaze over the the 'Pillars of Hercules' and learn about ancient civilisations. This general nature and history day tour gives clients a real "day to remember". Lizards, Bee-eaters, Preying mantis, all kinds of butterflies, Griffon Vultures, Roe and Red Deer and Iberian black pigs are just some of the creatures waiting to be found and perhaps we'll have a chance to watch the cork-oak harvest in the huge Alcornocales forest during summer. We will see some of the spectacular geology of the area, as Africa still pushes northwards against Europe! We can also visit some minor Roman ruins, Moorish lime kilns and water cisterns as well as the option to visit the larger Roman ruins of the ancient city of Baelo Claudia opposite the Moroccan coast. If you have children coming along, the beach is right in front of the Roman ruins, so if they don't want to tag along they can have fun until we collect them after the visit.
