Birding the Straits Migration Tour, Tarifa, Spain - 7 Days

Pick up at Airport and Transfer to the hotel in Tarifa. Dinner and accommodation in Tarifa.

Departure at sunrise to visit El Paraje Natural ¨Playa de Los Lances¨, located on the western slope of the Strait, is a very interesting place for bird watching, because here the rivers Jara and Vega converge with the ocean, mixing water sweet with salt, sand with limes and clays and with a great variety of vegetation.

It is a good place for observation of migration, highlighting the presence of large numbers of waders and seagulls; and as the most emblematic species: Audouin's Gull.

Then we will take a picnic at one of the observatories located in the Strait.

Throughout the afternoon we will make a tour of different observatories located to observe the migration and depending on the prevailing wind, we will choose one or another side of the Strait to make our observations. Among the most representative species are the large concentrations of Black Kites, Culebreras Eagles, Cigueñas Negras, Buzzards, Buzzards, Águila Calzados, among others.

Dinner and accommodation in Tarifa.

Departure at dawn to visit different observatories throughout the morning, as the previous afternoon we will choose the most appropriate depending on the prevailing wind in the area.

We will take the pic-nic in the last observatory that we visit to go later to the Natural Park of Los Alconocales.

This Natural Park has the largest extension of cork oak in Europe, also finding other ecosystems such as quejigares, palmitares, acebuchales, pine forests, rivera forests, scrubland and grasslands. It is a very good area for observing large raptors as well as typical birds of fluvial forests and low scrub.

Dinner and accommodation in tariff.

Departure at sunrise to visit La Janda, which was the most important wetland of the Iberian Peninsula. After undergoing important canalization and desiccation works to transform their lands into cultivation areas, still today it is presented as one of the most emblematic places in terms of bird watching, highlighting important groups of Cranes, Collared Pratincole, Montagu's Harrier , Squacco Heron, Glosy Ibis, etc .; In addition to being an area of the Imperial Eagle and due to its proximity to the Strait, it is an area where thousands of birds migrate.

From here we will move to the Laguna de Medina where we will taste our pic-nic and make a tour around the wetland where we can observe as more interesting species the White-headed Duck, the Ferruginous Duckf, the Red-crested Coot, the Purple Swamphen, the Red crested Pochard, the Black-necked Grebe, etc.

At mid-afternoon we will go to the Natural Park of the East Arm (Doñana), located on the left bank of the Guadalquivir is one of the two large arms of the river at its confluence with the marshes.

Currently, this enclave is surrounded by rice fields and is one of the best places to observe birds in Doñana. At this time of the year we will observe important concentrations of waders, anatidae, ardeidae, marsh birds; some as interesting as spoonbills, Glosy Ibis, Purple Gallinule, marsh harriers, Night Herons, Great White egrets, Spanish Sparrow , Penduline Tit, etc.

Late in the afternoon we will visit the island of Los Olivillos, the old route of the Guadalquivir river that after the transformations suffered to adapt it to the big ships that went up to Seville, it remained like a big reservoir surrounded by beaches where we can observe many of the aquatic, waders and ardeidae of Doñana, highlighting among others the Red Crested Pochard, White headed Duck, the black-necked grebe ...

We will cross the Guadalquivir on a large barge to go to our accommodation in Aznalcázar.

Dinner and overnight at Hacienda Olontigi.

Departure at dawn to visit first a meadow with Mediterranean mountain where you can see some interesting passerines such as the Sardinian warbler, Dafort warbler, Sardinian warbler, hoopoes and some raptors as the kite, the Booted eagle or the Black shouldered Kite

At mid-morning we will visit the reserve of the Dehesa de Abajo. A large farm where different ecosystems are mixed such as pine forests, olive groves, scrubland and a wetland of about 300 hectares. in which there are many aquatic birds such as Glosy Ibis, Flamingos, Spoonbills, RedCrested Pochard, Grebes, Black tailed Godwit, Redshanks, Grey lag Geese, Avocets, Black winged stilt, Common Coots, White headed Duck, Marbled Teal, Ferroginuos Duck, Osprey, etc. .

In this place we will take the pic-nic, to later cross the Green Corridor of the Guadiamar, at the moment and after the works of restoration carried out after the ecological disaster suffered in 1998, it is one of the best ecological corridors of Europe, connecting Sierra Morena with Doñana.

In this enclave we will find large groups of Common Greens, Cranes, groups of Black Storks, Storks, Great Egret, as more representative.

At mid afternoon we will cross a wide area of natural marsh in the northern limit of the National Park. We will make different stops in observation areas such as Lucio del Lobo, José Antonio Valverde Visitors Center and Caño del Guadiamar, where we will observe Glosy Ibis, Avocets, Great Egret, Night Heron, Purple Swamphen,Red crested Coot , Grassoper warbler, Baylon´s Cracke, as the most representative species .

Dinner and overnight at Hacienda Olontigi.

Departure before sunrise to go to the village of El Rocío, where we will pick up some off-road vehicles to make the northern route of the Doñana National Park. In this itinerary we will cross two of the most important Doñana ecosystems: the marsh, the vera and the Mediterranean mountain. In this tour we will observe species such as the Iberian Imperial Eagle, Booted Eagle, Red Kite, Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Iberian Ganga, Little Bittern, Martinete, Sparrow, Moruno Sparrow, Moscon Bird, Purple Gallinule, Colorado Wigeon, Mallard, Common Teal, Grey lag, etc.

After completing this tour we will visit the Rocina Visitor Center, where we will stop to take a picnic.

In the afternoon we will carry out a two and a half hour walk transect skirting the Arroyo de La Rocina, one of the marsh's main water sources. It is a path in which there are several hides that look at the channel of the stream and shaped in turn by a forest in gallery very well preserved. Here we can see infinity of passerines next to the riparian vegetation, as well as anatidae and ardeidae.

Dinner and overnight at Hacienda Olontigi.

Transfer to the airport and the departure of flights.