I am pleased to have been asked by my sister, Kate, to be the first guest writer on her blog to reflect on a week in Extremadura birdwatching with 3 friends – Matt, Gary and Dave.

For those who don’t know Extremadura it is a region of Spain some 300km south west of Madrid on the border with Portugal. It is a land of contrasts with vast plains made up of either open cork oak woodlands known as the dehesa or grasslands giving way to mountainous areas with snow capped peaks. The population density at 25 people per km2 is approximately 6% of that for England.

How else does it vary from England? Well for a start the roads are pleasingly free of traffic and potholes and there is no litter to detract from the beautiful scenery. It also appeared that lots of energy was coming from green sources – we passed lots of vast solar farms, a nuclear power plant, wind farms and a hydroelectric dam. At the latter we had a run in with the Guardia Civil who wanted to know what we were doing ‘watching’ an important piece of infrastructure when we were actually watching eagles and vultures rising on the thermals. On the green theme it seemed that there was little use of pesticides or other modern farming methods. The evidence of this is everywhere – the car windscreen was covered in dead insects (does anyone remember that in the UK from years gone by?) and wildflowers grew in profusion everywhere especially purple Viper’s-bugloss (picture below with Spanish festoon butterfly) spurred on by recent unusually high rainfall.

Any downsides? Well yes, vast solar farms cover what was once pristine habitat and the blades of wind turbines present a known danger to birds such as raptors, but hey these energy sources must be preferable to fossil fuels. Other than that there was the minor inconvenience that in this part of Spain locals eat at lunchtime so restaurants were not open in the evenings. Matt’s vegetarian diet was not well served anywhere. As a result we had to largely cater for ourselves and hence did not mix as much as we would have liked with the local population.

We arrived at our rural finca in the middle of the night which reminded me that even living in a village, as I do, it is never really dark when you have the light pollution of a nearby city. What a magical place it was to be at that time – a beautiful dark cloudless starry night with the silence only broken by the singing of several nightingales close by.

We knew we were going to have a good week when we made a quick stop on the way back from the shops on our first day and had 3 species of vulture, 2 species of eagle and 2 species of kite circling low over our heads. It seems wrong somehow to have vultures in Europe but they were a common sight and we got to witness a feeding frenzy of about 150 griffon vultures on a sheep’s carcass, albeit that they had to spend time waiting for the larger black vultures to have their fill before charging in to feed.

What else can I tell you about Extremadura without boring those of you with only a passing interest in birds. We had 3 days with a local guide, Ricardo Montero, and his knowledge of the birds, their songs and where to find them certainly added to our experience. He showed us great and little bustards displaying as part of their mating rituals, the extraordinary domed structure of a penduline tit nest hanging from a tree over a reedbed, an eagle owl sitting on its nest, a Spanish imperial eagle eating a partridge and a short toed eagle eating a snake to name but a few. We didn’t need a guide to see white storks which nested on every available large structure such as churches, castles and electricity pylons or the multi coloured bee eaters (main shot) which seemingly occupied every available sandy bank along every stream.

Penduline tit , Great Bustard, Spanish imperial eagle, Spoonbill.

So is Extremadura just for nature lovers? I would say no, the scenery is stunning and varied and if you like history there are many hilltop towns and villages such as Trujillo with castles, churches and monasteries going back as far as Roman and Moorish times. Cáceres is one of the few cities in the region, small by UK standards with a population of less than 100,000, but with many attractions. Unfortunately I can’t tell you a great deal about these places because we chose to spend all of our time birdwatching! The 3 hour plus drive from Madrid may also put off some but that very remoteness is hard to find in Western Europe and the peacefulness that comes with it certainly added to our experience.

Why not give it a try?

White storks.

Photos : Dave Martin and Mick Hayhurst

Thank you to Mick for being my first guest writer, and a fitting way to celebrate Earth Day. Can we imagine a world without these amazing birds?! – Kate.