Qualla: El Fondo Natural Park https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:38:46 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/e/y/z/3/el-fondo-natural-park-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: El Fondo Natural Park https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park El Fondo Natural Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park/ Photo credit mandoft from El Campello (Alicante), Spain, CC BY-SA 2.0. Every winter since the 2008-2009 season, a greater spotted eagle hatched in Estonia has crossed most of a continent to settle into the same patch of southeastern Spanish marsh. Researchers know its movements precisely, because the bird carries a satellite transmitter, and year after year the signal comes to rest over El Fondo. Only around a thousand breeding pairs of these eagles are thought to remain in all of Europe, which makes one bird's stubborn loyalty to a single wetland near Elche feel like something close to a small miracle. It is also a clue to why this unassuming stretch of reed and standing water matters far beyond its modest size.

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Image: mandoft from El Campello (Alicante), Spain | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/y/z/3/el-fondo-natural-park-wp/eyz3-el-fondo-natural-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full El Fondo Natural Park: Where Two Rivers Give Up https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park/ Photo credit Zeisterre, CC BY-SA 3.0. El Fondo sits in the Baix Vinalopo district, straddling the boundaries of Elche and Crevillent in the south of the Valencian Community. Two rivers, the Vinalopo and the Segura, both surrender their water into the lagoons that make up the park. This was once the edge of a far larg...

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Image: Zeisterre | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/y/z/3/el-fondo-natural-park-wp/eyz3-el-fondo-natural-park-where-two-rivers-give-up.mp3 0:06 2 full El Fondo Natural Park: Lagoons Made to Order https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park/ Photo credit Javicoves, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park's two biggest bodies of water are not accidents of geography. Levante, covering 450 hectares, and Poniente, at 650 hectares, were dammed by human hands to hoard water from the Segura for irrigating the thirsty fields around them. In other words, El Fondo began life as ag...

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Image: Javicoves | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/y/z/3/el-fondo-natural-park-wp/eyz3-el-fondo-natural-park-lagoons-made-to-order.mp3 0:06 3 full El Fondo Natural Park: The Ducks the World Almost Lost https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park/ Photo credit Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0. The birds are the reason people come. El Fondo shelters two of the largest populations anywhere on the planet of the marbled duck and the white-headed duck, both among Europe's most endangered waterfowl. In breeding season the reed margins fill with herons, the purple, the night,...

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Image: Diego Delso | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/y/z/3/el-fondo-natural-park-wp/eyz3-el-fondo-natural-park-the-ducks-the-world-almost-lost.mp3 0:06 4 full El Fondo Natural Park: Protected on Paper and in Practice https://qualla.com/el-fondo-natural-park/ Photo credit Ronald C. Card, CC BY-SA 4.0. For all its manufactured origins, El Fondo now carries some of the strongest conservation credentials a wetland can hold. The Valencian government declared it a natural park on 12 December 1988, protecting 2,495 hectares. It appears on the Ramsar Convention's roster of internatio...

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Image: Ronald C. Card | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/y/z/3/el-fondo-natural-park-wp/eyz3-el-fondo-natural-park-protected-on-paper-and-in-practice.mp3 0:06 5 full