For the first time, the great egret has nested in the Natural Park of the Salinas de Santa Pola (Alicante). The presence of two pairs has been recorded, thus adding to the 33,000 pairs of waterfowl that are part of the census for 2012 of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Territory and Environment of the Generalitat Valenciana.

Valencian wetlands have reached their historical maximums this year for species such as the black-necked grebe, ibis ibis, common pochard, laughing gull, black-headed gull, Audouin’s gull and the marsh harrier.

In addition, some rare species have been recorded, such as the shoveler, the reed teal and the redshank, as well as the expansion of the marsh harrier that has begun to nest in the Embarcaderos Reservoir, the Xeresa Marsh and in the Albufera of Valencia. The latter is the one that collects the largest number of waterfowl, with 36 of the 46 species that breed in the Valencian Community.

The preparation of these censuses makes it possible to measure the degree of conservation of wetlands and to analyse the evolution of the most threatened species with the aim of marking various actions aimed at their conservation.