Europe
I moved to France in 2019, and am still trying to memorize the common birds around here. I haven’t done too much birding in Europe, but have found a little time here and there. There are a few European birds and animals scattered throughout the wildlife photo page, taken either on climbing trips, or short birding excursions around France and Spain. Quick shoutout to Birding Languedoc who run great birding tours in the South of France. I’ve gone to a couple outings with them and it’s always heaps of fun.
In February of 2025, I went to the Białowieża Forest in northeast Poland, a trip organized by a friend who specializes in finding and documenting European wildlife . We were mostly looking for wolves, which we narrowly missed, judging by the trails they left in the snow near our stakeout spots. However, we got to enjoy the presence of some European Bison, a species making a comeback in Europe thanks to reintroduction efforts since it went extinct in the wild in the 1920’s. For anyone hoping to make a similar trip, I would only recommend that you bring warmer clothes that I did! Most of the days involve sitting as still as possible for hours in -15 degrees Celsius/5 degrees Fahrenheit, waiting to spot movement on the horizon. My 7 layers weren’t enough most days, but I’m still excited for a chance to get back.
Some other pictures from Europe are from a couple solo birding outings in 2021 in the Camargues and La Teich, two of France’s top birding sites. Migration season was still a couple of weeks out, but there were still a lot of resident birds and a couple of early arrivals to appreciate. The first stop was Pont de Gau, a nature reserve in les Camargues where the Rhône meets the Mediterranean. The mix of fresh and saltwater, reeds, grass, and warm weather make it a fun place to see wading birds and some elusive warblers - not to mention flamingos. So many flamingos. The mosquitos love the climate as well, and it was a pleasure to share the experience with them. Highlights: One beautiful bearded reedling (I only got bad pictures of this one, unfortunately), greater flamingos (obviously), snipes, avocets, and ducks galore. Between Bordeaux and Arcachon is a nature reserve called le Teich, where lots of migrating birds make pit stops and many other residents make nests. My timing was off, seasonally and tidally speaking, but I still saw some neat stuff.
One of the birding highlights of my time in Europe was more recent, in peak springtime in Extremadura, Spain. There are lots of ornithological sites and other resources in the Birding Extremadura app, so I mostly just drove around visiting them for 5 days, stopping to take pictures where the narrow roads permitted. Ieltxu was also there to help find an Iberian lynx (no pictures, unfortunately), as well as a great day of birding in Monfragüe National Park.
