Acrocephalus Blog: Ebre Delta Express Birding

Last Saturday we took the chance to visit the Ebre Delta in southern Catalonia. We were travelling south to visit some relatives, so we didn't have much time. Even though, we managed to see some good birds. We arrived quite a little bit late to l'Ampolla, and the first stop was Lo Goleró. This is the northern shore of the Ebre Delta, closing El Fangar Bay on the south. It is a very good spot for waders. However, we weren't really lucky that time, as the sea level was pretty high and there were only few places remaining muddy for the waders. As we arrived there, we saw plenty of waders, mainly Dunlins and Greenshanks, that were flushed out by a racing. You can drive most of the shore to the east following a dirty road suitable for a regular car (when it is not muddy!!). We did so, making frequent stops (there are many suitable places to stop and have a look) to look at the bay. We saw a couple of Shelducks, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Cormorants, many Sandwich Terns, Bar-tailed Godwits, Commons Snipes among others. When we finished there, we went to Platja de la Marquesa, a beach on the north-east of the delta. That is a good place for seawatching. We didn't see many things, but we saw Cormorant, Northern Gannet, Balearic and Mediterranean Shearwaters and Sandwich Terns. Two years ago there we saw an Eider. There starts a dirty road that goes to El Fangar Cape. It is a sandy (beach) area at the north part of the Delta.

Usually you can drive there, but not that day: it was flooded with many dunes on the road, so we gave up. This area is very good for waders and ducks (Common Scotter, for example). From Platja de la Marquesa we crossed the river to go to L'Alfacada. We had to drive to Amposta and cross the river there, as the shuttle that crosses the river at Deltebre was closed because of the lunch time. This supposed a 40Km loop! L'Alfacada is a lagoon bought by the Fundació Territori i Paisatge (something like the british National Trust) that harbours a good number of interesting spices, such as Water Rails, Purple Swamphen or Glossy Ibis. From there you can easily reach the Platja de Migjorn, another good seawatching spot. However, we saw nothing there. The next stop was La Tancada Lagoon. We stopped at the Salines de la Tancada beffore getting to the lagoon. These are old salines which are very good for maders, but they were completely flooded so there were only a few Dunlins Greenshanks and some Flamingos. From the salines we went to de Llacuna de la Tancada, where there were few interesting birds, except a nice flock of Flamingos. From the lagoon you can follow the shore to reach Els Alfacs Bay. This is a very good place for wintering Red-breasted Mergansers (we saw 2). We also saw there some Ruddy Turnstones and some Sanderlings. From there there is a dirty track that goes through El Trabucador to the Punta de

la Banya, which harbous the most important Audouin Gulls breeding colony of the world, about 60% of the population. We saw some of them during the whole day. El Trabucador is a 6 Km sandy bar that joins the Punta de la Banya (Horn Cape) with the rest of the delta. We didn't go there because we didn't have time, but it's worth going, specially in spring time. We ended the day at L'Encanyissada. L'Encanyissada is the biggest lagoon in the Delta, and holds a good number of waterfowl. We saw about 500 Red-crested Pochards, and Crested Coot is possible there (it has been reintroduced in the Valencian Country).

Spices seen: