Albufera Natural Park hike with birdwatching 8 km

Hike in the Parc Natural de s’Albufera (https://en.balearsnatura.com/parque_natural/parc-natural-de-salbufera-de-mallorca/). The entrance is from the Pont des Anglesos on the Ma-12. The start of the hike is from a free parking lot nearby. The nature park is an extraordinary park with marshes, lakes, reed land with sweet and brackish water, and a large number and variety of birds (https://www.birdingplaces.eu/en/birdingplaces/spain/salbufera-de-mallorca), so do not forget your binoculars. I saw among others several purple swamphen, flamingoes, glossy ibis, purple herons, squacco herons, black-crowned night herons, marsh harriers, avocets, black-winged stilts, and a whole range of ducks, waders and warblers. There are a lot of hides and platforms for looking at birds, and I visited some of them during this trip. You need a permit to visit the park which can be obtained for free at the reception (see waypoint). Also a map is available at reception and on the website mentioned above. The park is opened from 9 to 18 in summer, but for birdwatchers a special permit can be obtained at reception during normal opening hours allowing a visit as early as sunrise. That is what I used to enter at sunrise, after I collected it during a previous visit on a bike: see https://nl.wikiloc.com/routes-fietstochten/cycling-around-parc-natural-de-salbufera-17-km-113611703/. The latter bike tour takes you around the entire park. Scenery without much shade, so take enough water.
From the parking lot you walk to the Pont des Anglesos. From here you enter the park (with a closed gate there is a small opening on the left side you can use between sunrise and sunset when you have the special permit). You follow the half-paved Cami de Sa Roca along the Canal Gran. From the observation deck Es Canal Gran you have a view of trees full of breeding herons and ibis (in season). A smaller path gets you close to the canal, and a bit further is a boardwalk along the road, which takes you to the reception. In the reception you pick up your permit if you have not already done so, and a map. You continue to the Pont de sa Roca across the Canal Gran, and then take a path to the right taking you back along the Canal Gran towards two observation hides (Es Cibollar I and II with views of salt marshes). You then turn back to the bridge and take the gravel road Camí des Senyals north, with reed lands left and salt marshes to the right, with two observation decks. After 1.1 km you take a path to the bird hide Es Colombars, with good views of a brackish lake with plovers, ducks, waders, flamingoes etc. You walk back to the Camí des Senyals and take a look at a lake full of herons, grebes and ducks, and turn back to the Pont de sa Roca. You cross it, and directly on your right is a path along the canal to Es Canal Gran bird hide. This was one was closed on my trip. You turn back to the bridge and then turn right towards Sa Roca. After a while there is an observation hill across a lake and the Sa Roca area. Going further you visit another 3 bird hides before you get back to reception. A fourth hide can be visited from there. You then return to the entrance and the parking lot.