If you are a fan of total solar eclipses, you might want to visit northern Spain next August.
One birding tour operator is scheduling a visit to that region on Aug, 8-17 in 2026. The total eclipse will be on August 12.
Frankly, I am not a big fan of eclipses. My experiences have been quite underwhelming — sometimes the day is too cloudy and on others, the eclipse is for such a short period of time that it hardly seems worth all the fanfare.
However, I have been on a birding trip to Spain and besides visiting some ancient castles, our group saw some really neat birds. These included European bee-eater, Eurasian hoopoe, great bustard and Iberian green woodpecker.
Also, Madrid was a fascinating city to explore and I am told there are some interesting animals to see in the mountains of the Asturias region, Spanish ibex and the sharp-horned chamois, for example.
Most colorful bird I saw was the European bee-eater. This avian masterpiece comes in a rainbow of colors — red, yellow, black, turquoise and blue being just a few. Its sharp, curved bill is ideal for catching bees on the fly.
If you’re interested in making the tour, it costs $9895 from Madrid and has a limit of 42 participants. For information, contact Victor Emanuel Nature Tours at [email protected].
