International day of the bird

By Nicolas Ordax

In October, more specifically on the 3rd and the 4th, the International Day of the Bird is celebrated.

It is mainly a day on which activities related to ornithology are promoted in natural spaces. For example, there are guided bird-watching trips, guided photography tours and other activities...they are all, of course, free.

The Remolar-Filipines reserve, in the Llobregat Delta, is a place where these kinds of activities take place. It is located at the mouth of the River Llobregat and is a great place to observe birds. I've been there many times on short trips to do some bird-watching.

On the International Day of the Bird, the main activities in the Delta del Llobregat are the following:

-Guided trips: There are guided trips with local staff members to bird-watching hides on the lagoons and to the Pineda de Cal Francès, which is a little forest that is closed all year round apart from this day.

-Competitions: There are some competitions, involving, for example, drawing, identifying and photographing birds.

-Bird releasing: Injured birds that have been found and cured are released.

-Bird ringing: Bird ringing is a very big project, in which people at ringing stations put some nets in a specific area and then ring the captured birds. When birds migrate, they are sometimes captured by other ringing stations and this allows us to trace their migration route of the birds. On the Day of the Bird, visitors are shown how this process works.