Sharing our passion for nature in Extremadura since 2005
Birding Extremadura is a family run specialist birdwatching tour operator who focuses on private and exclusive tours to one of Europe’s top birding and nature-watching destinations. Martin Kelsey is your leader and he has taken people on customised tours over 120 times in Extremadura. We also partner with acclaimed broadcasters and writers, Mark Cocker and David Lindo, offering group holidays with a difference.
Martin and Claudia Kelsey also offer guest house accommodation and have been based in the heart of this region since 2005, catering for birders and other naturalists, especially those travelling independently. We are passionate about Extremadura and love to share that passion with other wildlife enthusiasts. We work closely with local government and non-government organisations to support our activities on birds, conservation and wildlife tourism.
Birding Extremadura offers small group customised private birding and nature ecotours throughout Extremadura, these holidays are exclusive to you so that you will receive dedicated guiding support from Martin, with the holiday set at your pace to meet your specific needs and expectations.
Our private Extremadura birding ecotours are normally seven nights/eight days with flexible dates to suit you throughout the year, and shorter or longer holidays are also available on request. Since these birdwatching Extremadura holidays are personally customised, we can include visits to historic towns, and aspects of other nature interests such as botany, butterflies or dragonflies.
See Martin’s blog for insights into nature in Extremadura: https://www.birdingextremadurablog.com/
Martin and Claudia also organise special activities, run by invited and widely-acclaimed tutors, broadcasters and writers, covering themes like nature-writing and landscape painting. Keen photographers can also be linked-up with local business offering hides for birds of prey and passerines.
Casa Rural El Recuerdo
Birding Extremadura and its guesthouse, Casa Rural El Recuerdo, offer a full range of options for guests, from Bed & Breakfast to Full Board, with expert local advice to help guests explore the area for themselves as well as guided daytrips and fully inclusive private tours if requested. Martin and Claudia’s experience and knowledge mean that the wishes and requirements of each guest can be individually met. Our private tours are customised to your interests and your pace.
Why Extremadura?
Extremadura lies in the south-west of the Iberian Peninsula and boasts an amazing diversity of vast landscapes with mainly traditional farming. This combination makes it a unique corner of western Europe, sustaining wildlife populations that have become just distant memories elsewhere.
Extremadura is a year-round destination, but with distinct seasonal differences. Spring (from March to May) offers a luxuriant diversity of wildlife, but winter visits are extremely popular because of the sheer abundance of birds and superb conditions for photography. Autumn rains bless Extremadura with a second spring, with a resurgence of growth and delightful autumn flowers. The hot dry summer has a charm of its own, combined with a slower pace and the richness of wildlife like dragonflies now at a peak.
Extremadura has so much to offer in terms of wildlife (birds – including 23 breeding species of raptor, 120 species of butterflies, 55 species dragonflies, wonderful flowers) as well as for those with a love of landscape, authenticity, gastronomy, culture and history (there are three World Heritage Sites as well as a Geological Park within an hour from Martin and Claudia’s house).
Birding Extremadura contributes to local conservation effort both through annual donations and through voluntary work to census and monitor critical species.
We currently partner the conservation charity AMUS, which runs a wildlife recovery centre, as well as species reintroduction projects in Extremadura, elsewhere in Spain and in other southern European countries. Here is the link to their website: http://www.amus.org.es/
Birding Extremadura and Casa Rural El Recuerdo are part of the Birding in Extremadura Product Club which is a partnership between the business sector and government of Extremadura aiming to promote and develop sustainable and conservation-conscious birdwatching and wildlife tourism in Extremadura.
Martin is President of the Extremadura Nature Guides association, GUIDEX, is a board member of the Common Crane Conservation Working Group in Extremadura and the Extremadura Rarities Committee. Claudia is a board member of the local rural development body ADICOMT, which brings together the public and private sector.
On a business level, we are blessed in being in the heart of a gastronomic paradise, making sourcing locally produced wholesome and sustainably produced food very easy, coupled with the fact we use our very own organic olive oil and produce from our garden when in season.
We supply re-usable water bottles to guests on our customised tours and have thus eliminated our use of plastic water bottles and no longer use plastic bags for picnics.
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