winter2007-08.htm

To be quite honest I was pretty exhausted last season after leading birding and wildlife tours through lots of different European destinations including a tour SW to Turkey. Domestic life was also fairly busy and I wanted to spend some more time with my girls. I do apologise for the long silence in getting back to update this particular part of the web site and I know that lots of you look by from time to time, just to keep informed of what's happening here in southern Spain and of course to read reports of our travels.

Stephen Knapp (the Doc) and I have enjoyed all the different groups, their fun and good company keeping me on my toes! There was also the splendid wildlife and fantastic scenery, ruins including all the history and culture from diverse places as the Hoewand and the Schneeberg of the Eastern Austrian Alps, to the serenity of lesser known ancient ruins at Miletus in Turkey.

Most of the Spanish tours ran last year as did most of the scheduled Limosa Holidays ones that I had been 'penciled-in' for.

On the home front, our guest house the ever-popular Hoopoe cottage, had its fair share of birders, family and friends. Isn't it funny how popular you become when you move south. It's lovely to see everybody enjoying themselves relaxing on one of the terraces or preparing a barbeque and last spring we started work on our swimming pool. It's a fair size at 8x4m and has fairly wide steps in a semi-circle . It looks great and we had a salt water system installed rather than going for the usual chlorinated pool which I often find too aggressive on skin, eyes and sinuses. The pool was completed in May and I began work on a new garden wall and surrounding terrace with paths. Phew! Working in the heat was also a killer but the rewards are beginning to show and already everything looks quite luxurious. We all love it and it was something that would have been great to have a few years ago.

We went on a family holiday to Italy, flying from Seville to Rome. Here we drove up past Monte Casino and stayed for a week at Castellabarte south of Salerno. Lovely beaches but I must say not a patch on what we have on The Strait. We are so lucky - especially with the Military zone beaches which are normally deserted in summer, even although there are no military manoeuvres past the middle of May. The Italian coast south of Rome was quite an experience and huge drainage projects undertaken by Mussolini in the 1930's around Latina wa quite an engineering project. Sadly the loss of breeding and feeding habitat for lots of animals meant that eventually the area became good agricultural land at the expense of a previously rich and diverse wildlife.

We travelled to The Black Forest in December to celebrate Christmas with Patty's family. It was quite relaxing and good to see everyone once more. The crisp frost on the pine forests of southern Germany looked quite breathtaking and we were very lucky with the weather. Although there was no snow the clear air was great and I did manage to see a Black Woodpecker! I also took some lovely shots of the local (White-throated) Dipper on the river Murg where Goshawks and Red Kites regularly flew overhead.

Anyway, by the time we got back to Andalucia, just in time for New Year, I didn't want to see the inside another airport and all the hassles for a while .......... Then I was invited to the Gambia in February. How can I say no!!!

Getting back to the continued habitat loss for wildlife Southern Spain I recently wrote the following short article for our local "La Luz" magazine.

Wild Side Walk - The Ancient Lagoon of La Janda

La Janda was once one of the biggest freshwater lagoons in southern Europe, but even though it was drained half a century ago, it still provides a rich natural environment that is well worth exploring. The annual rice harvest starts at the end of October throughout November and is a time of feasting for thousands of White Storks Grey Heron Cattle Egrets and many other birds. It is quite a spectacle to watch the birds follow the huge metal-wheeled combine harvesters churning up the paddy fields. But the area is really famous for its Common Cranes, which traditionally bred in the ancient marshlands and lagoon of La Janda before it was finally drained for agriculture. In winter they still arrive here from northern Europe, leaving their breeding grounds in Scandinavia, Western and Central Europe, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia to winter in southern Europe and North Africa. The two thousand or so La Janda Cranes are the southernmost Common Crane migrants on the European continent. So why do the Cranes still come here and what is their own story? The Cranes still regard the site as their territory, and rightly so. They bred here in huge numbers for thousands of years along with many other species of birds and other wildlife. In the 50s and early 60s southern Spain and large areas along the Mediterranean were ridden with malaria and the people suffered from years of famine, particularly within Cádiz and Huelva provinces on the Costa de la Luz. Around this time Dwight D. Eisenhower welcomed the fascist regime of Franco back into the ‘western’ fold, primarily to gain strategic air and naval bases in Spain during the beginning of the Cold War. The people of poverty stricken Andalucia set about modernizing their agriculture, with the vast amounts of money received from the US government. Dutch engineers were immediately contracted to drain the area know as La Janda. Common Cranes no longer were able to breed in the area and slowly the southern Spanish populations died out. Rice was planted in abundance here and on Isla Mayor, across the western bank of the mighty Guadalquivir, which incidentally now is the largest rice growing area in Europe. The immediate effect on the poor and starving was slow to start with and the eradication of malaria took longer. The indiscriminate use of pesticides including spraying of DDT to combat mosquitoes had a catastrophic effect on wildlife, as did the decision to allow local people to re-start hunting with firearms. From 1937 to the early 1950s hunting was banned for most under Franco. Iberian Lynx, Wolves and Bears had sizeable Iberian populations. Great Bustards, Marsh Owls, Rails and Crakes and Red Deer fed and flourished in and along the marshlands. But hunting rapidly reduced the wildlife. Local hunters were paid cash on the spot for every dead eagle brought to certain large fincas all over Spain where the lucrative business of pheasant and partridge rearing took place. In spite of all of this massive environmental upheaval, the Common Cranes in 2007 still find quiet corners with food, enjoying the escape of cold northern winters. Watching long lines of these wonderful creatures fly through the arc of a rainbow stretched across the ancient plain, makes one’s heart truly sing like a bird’s. The best way to explore La Janda on public tracks is from the N340 Zahara de Los Atunes junction. Right opposite this junction is a rough track which leads down to the main collector canal and the rice fields. The track turns left and continues for approximately 4 kms before you reach the junction at a bridge over the main canal. Turn right over the bridge and follow the track towards Benalup. If you remain on the main track running parallel with the canal, this leads you back after another 4 kms onto the junction of the N340 approximately 3 km east of the junction with Manzanete. Unfortunately there are no circular walking routes here. Mountain biking is perhaps another way to explore the area. The track is passable with care most months in a standard family car, but during the wetter months the track can deteriorate and a 4x4 may be your best bet.