Guernsey Press

Fly to the wild side

Millions of people fly over central Spain each year on their way to the costas, but beneath them can be found some of the most exciting wildlife in Europe – as our roaming naturalist Tim Earl explains.

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Millions of people fly over central Spain each year on their way to the costas, but beneath them can be found some of the most exciting wildlife in Europe – as our roaming naturalist Tim Earl explains.

THERE is irony in that many of the folk who know least about the wild side of Spain fly over its heart.

The hustle and bustle of the costas are a world away from great bustards, sandgrouse and imperial eagles but are close in proximity.

Extremadura is the epitome of Spain's more natural side. It is not a wilderness, as the habitats enjoyed by some of Europe's rarest birds are carefully managed, but Extremadura is a haven for wildlife.

The Belen Plain is a great example. In spring it is a mass of wild flowers looking like something from a Renoir painting. The colours seem to have been splashed across the fields with no form or pattern.

Those fields, however, are ploughed up in rotation each year ready for the cattle and sheep flocks to graze them.

The livestock is accompanied by wild residents: huge great bustards, Europe's heaviest flying bird, strut across the plains impressing their females by turning wings forward creating the impression of a large white pompom with legs.

Black-bellied and pin-tailed sandgrouse nest on the dry steppe feeding in flocks that visit waterholes morning and evening. There they soak breast feathers in water. On the birds' return, the chicks suck water out of their parents' plumage.

Great spotted cuckoos are regular visitors, making chuckling calls as they search for nests to lay their eggs in – magpies are the host species, to the delight of many British birders.

There are many raptors that feed on the plains' small mammals and dead sheep. Griffon and black vultures are the main scavengers but harriers, falcons and eagles hunt the voles and mice that thrive in the grasslands.

Prize among these is the Spanish imperial eagle, a species restricted to the Iberian peninsula and present only in small numbers.

They are large brown birds with golden 'braces' on the upper surface where the wings join the body. These creep over the shoulders, giving the appearance of landing lights as the birds fly towards observers. (Care must be taken here as the much smaller booted eagle shows the same feature.)

Extremadura is 250km south-west of Madrid airport on the main motorway running to Lisbon. The worst part of our tour is getting out of Madrid, but some of the best soon follows: a visit to Cafe David, where white storks nest on the roof and delicious tapas are served in the bar.

The journey is broken again at Embalse de Arrocampo, a man-made lake, the waters of which are used to cool a nuclear power plant. Its reed-fringed edges are teeming with birds, from purple gallinules climbing the bulrushes to reeling Savi's warblers clinging to reed stems.

Purple herons and black-crowned night herons join nesting great and little egrets and Cetti's warblers shout their songs to all and sundry while huge carp slurp along the reed beds.

The motorway rises up and around Monfrague national park, a visit to which will be a highlight of the trip. Here we will climb up into the castillo that overlooks the area to watch griffon vultures from above as they soar past, check out choughs nesting in the castle's ruins and look out for rare, white-rumped swifts.

The park is a stronghold for nesting imperial eagles, which can be seen fairly consistently soaring with vultures over craggy outcrops. Eagle owls are not so easily found, although we have been fortunate on occasions. Otters, wild boar and deer are seen fairly regularly.

Many of the trees in Monfrague are cork oaks and there are usually some that have recently been stripped of their outer layers of bark. These have deep brick-red-coloured trunks that turn black a year or two after being stripped.

Gangs of largely Portuguese tree-strippers collect the cork once every 10 years. A detailed record is kept of each tree and when last it had its bark harvested. Each area is visited annually, with trees being stripped only when it is their time.

Our tours to Extremadura are centred on Trujillo, birthplace of the Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, whose statue dominates the central plaza.

The buildings surrounding it are largely topped by storks' nests and the spring air is full of clacking bill-clapping sounds as birds greet each other.

On the outskirts is an old bullring that has a derelict pan-tiled roof. Lesser kestrels nest under the loose tiles and give excellent opportunities to study the subtle differences between them and common kestrels.

Lesser kestrels have a quite different lifestyle from the common. They are colonial nesters and hunt insects on the plains of Spain in loose flocks.

These birds hover like the common kestrel but tend to swoop down, snatching grasshoppers and crickets from grass stems instead of dropping onto their prey.

Globally endangered, lesser kestrels have a stronghold in Extremadura and recent news about numbers increasing is encouraging.

We stay outside the town in a 'casa rural'. Las Canteras is as Spanish as one could wish. The owners speak little English and the excellent cuisine is completely authentic and often surprising.

A walk down the road nearby takes us into great bustard territory and eagle owls are seen in the grounds regularly. More than 40 pairs of storks nest around the ruins of an old barn, indicating the richness of the area.

One of my favourite walks is along the Rio Tozo, a haunt of shy otters, warbling woodlarks and kingfishers.

A pond at the far end of our walk has spoonbills if we are lucky, lots of wild ducks and waders pick around its edges.

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