SPAIN
7th - 11th MAY 2022
EBRO DELTA, CATALONIA
Sunrise, Ebro Delta - view from the accommodation - May 2022
It had been a while since I'd been anywhere, last trip abroad birding was way back in 2016 with a visit to Arctic Norway. By March this year it looked like Covid restrictions were starting to lift to the extent that a trip could be relatively hassle free, so a passport renewal was sent off with a view to planning a break. After a reasonably quick turnaround of a couple of weeks or so, it was then a case of deciding where to go.
Key really was somewhere fairly straightforward to get to, that I could literally do over four or five days over a long weekend without losing too much time to travel, plus would provide plenty of wildlife photo opportunities. Not wanting to travel from one of the more distant UK airports, which would have involved a decent drive or overnight hotel, a scan of the various airline schedules from Leeds Bradford Airport, gave Jet2 flying to Reus, near Tarragona in north-east Spain.
Reus Airport services the tourist resorts and beaches along the Costa Daurada, but from a birding point of view it's only about a forty minute drive to the outskirts of the Ebro Delta. One of the largest wetland areas on the Mediterranean with open water, beaches, marshes, salt pans and the estuary, it's a haven for wildlife, especially birds.
Ebro Delta in north-east Spain around 100 miles south of Barcelona
I'd been to this area back in July & August 2011 (link for the photo album from that trip here - East Ayton Photography | Catalonia, Spain - July & August 2011 (eastaytonbirding.com). From memory it was a terrific place photography wise, and with this in mind return flights at £215, hire car at around £200 and accommodation for four nights at £185 in total were all booked.
No real targets species for the trip, most of those on offer I'd seen before, so it was more a case of just enjoying what I came across during the few days I had, hopefully in the sun, chilling out.
