Well, seein' as no-one appears to have visited the site, here's a (sort of) account of what I found.
The reserve is at least as large (in area) as a large UK town and is well arranged with organised routes with all-weather paths. Actually the only bit of a downside was the surface of the paths as they were gravel covered and it was virtually impossible to sneak up on a bird unheard !
The reserve is well equipped with 10 hides plus a huge observation tower which would cost you 102 hot steps to climb to the top! The reward is a fabulous view.
On our two visits (remember ~ I was going to drag my wife along) we saw:-
(All species in
RED were new to me.)
White Storks aplenty; they were nesting throughout the reserve, some "naturally" in trees, others on provided platforms.
Little Egrets;
Cattle Egrets;
Spoonbills;
Black Winged Stilts;
Greater Flamingoes;
Grey Herons;
House Sparrows; (there doesn't appear to be much of a shortage of them in Spain)
Reed Bunting;
Greenfinches;
Goldfinches;
Serins;
Spotless Starlings;
Stonechats;
Blackbirds;
Blue & Great Tits;
Pied Wagtails;
Grey Wagtails;
A few Cuckoos calling ~ but always away in the distance! ;
Nightingales; ~ by the bucketload! It wasn't possible to walk more than about 50 metres without hearing one, and sometimes two, singing from deep inside a bush or tree. Although we must have heard scores of them, we only caught sight of about three of the little elusive blighters!
Swallows; ~ some nesting inside a few of the hides, and still feeding young.
Bee Eaters; ~ fabulously colourful birds. On our first visit we watched them hawking in groups of between 5 - 6 up to about a dozen, but on our second visit we only saw them individually.
Several Warblers, none of which gave us close, or long enough looks in order to make a stab at identification;
Kestrel;
Buzzard;
Yellow Legged Gulls; although they're more numerous within human habitations ~ just like Herring/Lesser Black Back Gulls in the UK.
Little Gulls;
Mediterranean Gulls;
Shoveller;
Mallards;
Coots;
Moorhens;
. . . a few different types of waders too far off to see clearly . . . I only had my binocs, while a spotting scope would have been very handy.
The following link has a more comprehensive list of the birds that may be seen on the reserve ~~~
bird watching holiday spain Catalan Bird Tours AIGUAMOLLS DE L'EMPORDA spanish birding holidays
We also saw some unidentified Frogs and Toads, Crayfish, Terrapins, Water Boatmen and other aquatic insects as well as several Butterflies and a host of wild flowers.
I did get some iffy video footage, and if I ever manage to upload and edit it I'll try posting it here. (Don't hold your breath, though!)
I can only add that if you're ever in that area of Spain, the Emporda Marshes are a must-visit.
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