The summer species are heading out. The wintering birds have not yet arrived. But this is precisely when the wetland enters its most dynamic phase.
By mid-September the last Bee-eaters are already crossing the Strait. The Squacco Herons have been heading for Africa for weeks. The Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers that filled the reedbeds with their background noise are falling silent. To someone unfamiliar with the Albufera, it might seem as if the wetland is emptying.
The opposite is happening.
Post-breeding passage at the Albufera begins in August, but September is when the flow of waders reaches peak diversity. The species appearing now are different from those that will arrive in winter: these are birds that breed in northern Europe and the Siberian tundra, now heading south towards Africa and using the Valencian rice fields as a staging area.
September is the month of the rice harvest. As fields are cut and flooded again, shallow sheets of water appear that function as feeding traps for waders on passage. Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea), Ruff (Calidris pugnax), Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) and Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) are regular. In good years, a Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii) or a Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) — a Nearctic species that strays into the western Palearctic with some regularity — turns up among the flocks of Calidris.
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the most consistent presences of the autumn passage at the Albufera. It does not breed here, but between September and November it is possible to observe several individuals simultaneously fishing on the lagoon or perched on the stakes of the traditional fishing enclosures. Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) begins to appear towards the end of the month, and Merlin (Falco columbarius) follows somewhat later, usually in October.
The pine woodland of La Devesa del Saler acts as a filter for nocturnal migrants arriving at the coast. Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) and Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) concentrate in clearings and low scrub, particularly after nights with a southerly wind component. Activity peaks in the first two hours of daylight.
From mid-October the character of the wetland shifts. The first large flocks of Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Eurasian Teal (Anas crecca) and Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata) begin to settle on the lagoon. Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus), present year-round, now reach their highest concentrations: several thousand birds gather on the shallow southern end of the lagoon. Common Cranes (Grus grus) pass high overhead in flocks that are heard before they are seen, heading for Extremadura and North Africa.
This is also when the first Common Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita) arrive, their monotonous call — a dry, repeated chiff-chaff — marking the wetland's soundscape through to March.
There is a phenomenon that defines autumn at the Albufera and deserves an article of its own: the perellonà (Valencian for the flooding). After the harvest, farmers deliberately flood the rice fields, creating tens of thousands of hectares of shallow water that replicate the conditions of a natural wetland. It is an agricultural system that, unintentionally, sustains one of the largest concentrations of wintering waterbirds in the western Mediterranean. But the mechanics, history and ecology of the perellonà deserve far more than a paragraph. We will cover it in the next post.
September and October are probably the least promoted months at the Albufera among the general public. They lack the visual pull of flamingos in full winter or the spectacle of spring passage. But for the observer interested in wader identification, passage raptors or the dynamics of a wetland that changes composition week by week, there is no more interesting period.
Temperatures are comfortable — 18 to 26°C for most of September —, the late-afternoon light is excellent for photography, and tourist pressure drops sharply compared to August. This is the time when the landscape works quietly, and when you notice the things that can only be noticed if you are paying attention.