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Layton E Parham
04-13-2009, 05:06 PM
Traveling to Europe on Friday. Hope to make some great photos. I plan on landscapes, and wildlife. We will be visiting, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, maybe England.
Will I find many birds around the the large cities ? Thank You In Advance: Layton

Gyorgy Szimuly
04-14-2009, 03:14 AM
I am not living in any of the listed countries but I am sure birds will not be a problem in the Netherlands and in England. Not sure how far you can go out of the capitals but within one or two hours drive you can reach many nice habitats (at least in the Netherlands which I know a little).

Hope more local guys will help you soon.

Szimi

Juan Aragonés
04-14-2009, 05:42 AM
Layton you will find a lot of interesting places for birding in Spain not very far from the main cities but birds in Spain are really skittish so do not expect photography to be easy.
In the south of Spain: Right now, Doñana National Park is plenty of waterbird (the best time of the year to photograph squacco herons, purple herons, glossy ibis, flamingoes and many more species). Laguna de Fuentedepiedra (Málaga) is plenty of water this year so we expect a great breeding season for flamingo (I am talking about several thousands of birds), but it is not a great place for photography. Marismas del Odiel (Huelva) are very interesting at this part of the year and if you like landscapes do not forget the mountains of Sierra Nevada (Granada) or Torcal de Antequera (Málaga) an amazing karstic area. I strongly encourage you to order books from the series "Where to watch birds in...". There are a lot of titles about many european countries and are available in english.
In the west: Extremadura (Cáceres y Badajoz) is fantastic for stepary bird species like great bustard, vultures and other birds of prey. Do not forget Monfragüe Natural Park and look for "Salto del Gitano" a great place to photograph egyptian vulture, black vulture and griffon vultures. With some luck you can spot the black stork and the extremelly rare and endangered spanish imperial eagle. In the cities you will find a lot of oportunities to photograph lesser kestrel, white stork and some other birds.

ooops.... too many places to vistit ;-)

Please, have a look at : http://www.birdingspain.com
http://www.birdinginspain.com/birding-phototrip.html

Giulio Zanni
04-20-2009, 04:36 PM
In Italy take a look at this

http://www.lipu.it/oasi/oasiDettaglio.asp?133

and in France at this

http://www.parc-camargue.fr/English/index.php?callback=loadcpage&page_id=333&site_id=3


Have a safe trip, Giulio