The Albufera Natural Park in Majorca

Flooded during most of the year, this area - nearly 1,700 acres - has great ecological importance, not only by the presence of migratory birds, which finds a rest area between Europe and Africa, but also by many plant species that live in this environment that blends fresh water and salt water.

The protected natural park area only covers 1 700 hectares and is divided between the municipalities of Sa Pobla, north, and Muro, south, for the most part.

The Albufera Park is bordered on the east by the Ma-12 road which connects Alcúdia to Artà, which is built on the dunes that closes the lagoon. The lagoon empties into the Bay of Alcúdia by the Grand Canal (Grand Canal de S’Albufera) a place called Oberta, the mouth. Ma-12 road crosses the Grand Canal in Bridge of the English (Pont dels Anglesos), which is the entrance of the Natural Park.

The southern boundary of the park is near the village of Can Picafort, bordering the municipalities of Muro and Santa Margalida. At the western edge of the park follows the Canal des Polls, Can Blau from north to Sa Font de Son Sant Joan, in the south.

The limits of the Albufera lagoon have varied over the time during high water in the last 10,000 years, the lagoon reached the north, the city of Pollentia and areas Es Murterar and Sa Fe, where now is the road to Palma to Alcúdia. The wetland reaches its greatest depth (7 or 8 m) in the pond Bridges (estany dels Ponts), in the north of the lagoon.

The lagoon is fed by precipitation of a water catchment area of 640 km² routed to S’Albufera by seasonal rivers, the "torrents": northwest, rainwater from the Serra de Tramuntana are collected by the Torrent de Sant Miquel, which rises near the Lluc Monastery, which owes its name to the hermitage of Sant Miquel, near which it passes Campanet, south, water from the center of Mallorca, the Torrent de Muro, groundwater sources, locally called "ullals" also pour water aquifers in the lagoon. Coastal bar, consisting of dunes, prevents the direct output of fresh water to the sea, the water is retained to form large flooded areas, where sediments accumulate. In some places, as S’Oberta, water finds a way out. In times of low rainfall during the summer months, it is the salty waters of the Bay of Alcúdia entering in small quantities in the Albufera lagoon.

This variable mixture of fresh and salt water is the origin of the different forms of wetlands - depending on salinity, water depth and the nature of the soil - which are the ecological wealth S’Albufera. The wide variety of plant species that provide shelter and food to a variety of animals, which in turn are food for many other animals, made ​​to Albufera site with the greatest biodiversity all the Balearic Islands. The almost permanent flooding of much of the lagoon provides favorable conditions for the growth of vegetation conditions, the vegetation is growing steadily, as algae, aquatic plants, reeds dense grassland and gorse, wood shores. Vegetation releases oxygen and absorbs nutrients, while cleaning the water excess minerals that accumulate during its cycle. The vegetation provides food and shelter for wildlife, who benefits in a thousand ways, from the smallest insect that sucks the sap of the reeds, until beef imposing that swallows every day dozens of kilos of grass. The animals are also resources for other animals: the mosquito that bites livestock will be eaten by a toad, which is itself the victim of a snake, which will eventually turn eaten by a plume.

Men also attended the marshes S’Albufera, from time immemorial, to remove economic resources: hunting and fishing, first, then the rice, to feed, salt for preserving the foods, herbs to feed livestock; cane and reed materials used for manufacturing various products. Human activity to exploit the marsh, over time, halved the area of ​​wetlands.

The Roman city of Pollentia, located near the present Port d’Alcúdia, was already a port with a beautiful harbor that could accommodate the imperial fleet. The water level should be at the time, 2 to 3 meters higher than today, and the Albufera lagoon reached the vicinity of Pollentia. The marsh water game was very popular with the Romans, Pliny reports that the night herons and White-winged Scoters were considered de Mallorca to Rome as a delicacy. A few centuries later the Moors established in Alcúdia (the "hill" in Arabic), and he knew the lagoon left the Arabic name al Buhaira.

After the Catalan conquest in the early thirteenth century, the northern part of the lagoon was part of the royal domain, while the southern part is situated on the estate of Count Hug Empúries. This division still survives today, with the north on the town of Sa Pobla (in the County of Raiguer) and the south on the town of Muro (in the county of Pla de Mallorca).

In the seventeenth century began the work of draining the marshes in order to fight against malaria and expand agricultural land, canals were dug and cultivated plots were created, which were called "marjales".

More ambitious drainage works were undertaken from a royal decree in 1851 after several initiatives (Ferragut channel), development work was entrusted to an English company, the New Majorca Land Company, founded by engineers John Frederic William Bateman and Hope, two major channels were dug: the canal des Sol, extension of the Torrent de Muro, and canal de Sa Siurana extension Torrent de Sant Miquel. Roads were laid and bridges built, including the "Bridge of English". Drainage of flooded areas was improved by the use of hydraulic pumps, powered by a steam engine. These gigantic works employed 1,500 workers from across Mallorca, and allowed the drying of more than 2 000 hectares of land. However - due to water ingress sea - only 400 hectares could be used for agriculture, the others being rendered infertile by the presence of salt: the British company went bankrupt in 1892. Later, a farm rice moved S’Albufera, but the low price of rice, and a catastrophic flood in 1906, led to his ruin. A paper mill, located in the building of the former hydraulic pump Sa Roca, then produced paper - from reed leaves - until the 1950s.

The most serious of the lagoon S’Albufera damage occurred in the second half of the twentieth century, with the tourist boom of the 1960s, major hotel areas were established in the northern part of the lagoon and along the coast. The construction of the thermal power plant of Es Murterar led to the use of water ponds of Es Cibollar and Es Columbars for cooling facilities and the construction of power lines still dangerous for birds. This provoked an awareness for the conservation of the lagoon, which led to the acquisition in 1985 of 830 acres of wetlands by the Community of the Balearic Islands, which were declared a nature reserve, with the aim of creating a natural park.

In 1989, the Albufera Natural Park was listed in the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (with particular reference to waterbirds), better known as the Ramsar Convention (Iran, 1971).

The protected area covers 1 646 hectares of wetlands and dunes. It should be noted that on 3 November 2000, the region had to suffer a fire which spread over 450 hectares, of which 440 were part of the Natural Park. Fortunately, this took place outside the nesting period and the ecological consequences were not too serious.

One of the priorities of the management of the Park is to preserve the quantity and quality of water. That is why the main channels are periodically dredged and priests, cleaned the dikes and water flow controlled by valves. Several physical and chemical parameters of water are analyzed each month. The opening of open bodies of water (lakes without reeds) and diversification of habitats is through herds of cows and Majorcan Camargue horses.

The park is open to the public: observation huts were set up for visitors, from which they can observe the birds without disturbing them.

The center distributes permits to visit the park, brochures general information about the park, as well as lists of birds that can be seen at the time of the visit. It can also borrow binoculars for bird watching. A showroom can become familiar with species identification.

The Visitor Centre also has an annex building, the Can Bateman, who was originally the building housing a hydraulic bilge pumps, and later a paper mill making paper from reed leaves. The Can Bateman houses an audiovisual exhibition on the Albufera Natural Park.

Where fresh water is predominant (brown areas on the map) the vegetation is dominated by common reed (Phragmites australis) (canyet), the Twigrush or sawgrass marshes (Cladium mariscus) and, to a lesser extent, by cattail (Typha sp.), especially bulrush-cattail (Typha latifolia), rushes (Juncus sp.) (bova), Ravenna cane (Saccharum ravennae) (cesquera).

Other plants that live submerged in the waters of channels: pondweed leaves comb or sago pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus), the submerged hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) and various types of Chara (Characeae). At the surface of the channels are the duckweed (Lemna spp.) And the amphibian cress (Rorippa amphibia).

In their shadows grow the hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), the burr wood (Rubus fruticosus), the deformed periwinkle (Vinca difformis) and creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans). On open land bordering the reeds there is a large number of wild flowers, such as cattails, rushes (Scirpoides holoschoenus), plantain (Plantago sp.) And orchids (Orchidaceae) which bloom in April and May, including the marsh orchid (Orchis palustris ssp robusta), Mediterranean orchid is only found in three places: S’Albufera, a site in Algeria and Morocco site.

Brackish waters near the sea (gray areas on the map) are favorable environment for samphire (Sarcocornia sp. Arthrocnemum and sp.) And immortal (Helichrysum sp.).

On the coastal strip of forest (dark green areas of the plan) pushes the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), and, below, the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), heather many-flowered (Erica multiflora), the Sarsaparilla (Smilax sp.).

We should also mention the mushrooms, about 200 species have been recorded in the park, including halophilic psathyrelle (Psathyrella halofila), the species was discovered in 1992 and S’Albufera that can not be found anywhere else.

Of these 270 species must be distinguished breeding species (about 60) that breed in the lagoon, either because they are permanent residents or because they are summering and go south in autumn after breeding. The third group is the species that overwinter S’Albufera to head back to northern Europe in the spring. The last group is the passage migrants who make a short stop for a few days during their migration journey to the north in spring, south in the fall. Some species are partially migratory wintering and passage part.

Some species of birds of prey are also sedentary the marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), the rare peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), the kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and osprey (Pandion haliaetus).

As a bird of prey, only the Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae) is summering.

Rarer are the Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana) and barker (Tringa nebularia).

There are some rare migratory species: the curlew (Numenius arquata), Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), the Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus), the white stork (Ciconia ciconia), the black stork (Ciconia nigra), the common crane (Grus grus).

Of the 29 fish species recorded - most of marine origin - the most common are: the European eel (Anguilla eel), mullet (Liza Shelon sp and sp..), Perch (Percidae), European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), black goby (Gobius Niger), red mullet (Mugilidae) and bleak (Alburnus alburnus). Park fight against the pervasive presence of carp.

The Park of S’Albufera has 22 species of mammals, including many rodents and 8 species of bats, including the rare Barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus).

Invertebrates are very numerous dragonflies, flies, beetles, butterflies and moths (over 450 species) and arachnids.

Summer schedules Park (April to September): daily, 9:00 to 18:00.

Winter Park Hours (October to March): daily, 9:00 to 17:00.

Timetable Home Sa Roca Centre: 9:00 to 16:00, closed December 25 and January 1.

Phone: 00 34 971 892 250

Entry fee: The tour is free but it is mandatory to go through the Welcome Center to request a visitor’s permit.

Motor vehicles are prohibited in the park: you can walk or bike.

Open from late April to October.

Phone: 00 34 971 892 017

Website: grupotelparcnatural.com