A brief birding trip to our local marsh.

On Saturday, in between necessities such as a visit to the garden centre and the supermarket, my wife Carolina and I spent a couple of hours walking around our local marsh.  It´s always worth a look around here as there´s usually something of interest and it makes for a pleasant and easy spot of birding.

As it was afternoon, the gulls that can usually be found were absent, probably out on the coast.  The usual residents, Little Egret, Cattle Egret and Grey Heron were around in good numbers.  On the drier fields were large flocks of wintering Lapwing in amongst which were some fine looking Golden Plovers.
A Booted Eagle passed over, soon to be followed by a Buzzard.  The recent influx of Chiffchaffs was still evident, with Black Redstart, Stonechat and Meadow Pipit also around in good numbers.  Upon scanning around one of the quieter corners of the marsh we came across 20+ Snipe in a field, with Reed Buntings feeding nearby.
As we passed by one of the wetter areas we were also treated to great views of a Squacco Heron.  Although usually a summer visitor, a few often stay in this area for the winter.

Squacco Heron

Towards the end of our walk, we enjoyed views of the extremely pretty Bluethroat, a regular winter visitor to the Valencia region.  A Kingfisher whizzed past as we arrived back at the van, a fitting end to our short but most enjoyable outing.