Castilla y Leon: Spains biggest region with historic cities, "tierra del pan", spectacular landscapes and good birding.
Having visited most of Spains region, it was time to see more of the biggest region of Spain, Castilla y Leon, in the Easter of 2017. This is a highly agricultural intensive area, called "Tierra del Pan", meaning the bread land of Spain.
We started in Madrid, drove to Avila and spent the night there. Next day we went via Salamanca up to the border areas to Portugal, following the river Duero. We stayed overnight in Villalpando, which was a very good starting point for visiting the Villafafila area the next day. Villafafila is known for having the biggest population of Great Bustards in the world. Then, we went up to the scenic village of Sepulveda, which was a good point of departure for going to the Hoces del Duraton the next day. Last, but not least, we went down to Segovia and enjoyed the lovely parador there and did sightseeing in the historic city.
As for birding, I (who is the birdwatcher of us...) focused especially on two sites; Villafafila and Hoces del Duraton. Villafafila has the biggest population of the emblemic Great Bustard anywhere. I started in Vilalpando an hour before sunrise and drove out in the area. Even before sunrise, I could see the first great white "dots" out in the fields, and just a 1 km outside the village. As the light came, I could see single males and groups of females in most of the fields, just looking out of the car window. I guess I had at least 50 in just a couple of hours. As for the lagoons, the most important in this area of Spain, some of them were already dry. So the best was to go on the southern side of Laguna Grande. This was well worth a visit. The abandoned farm has a big Lesser Kestrel colony, Rock Sparrow was abundant, several Little owls were occuping the bird tower and in the fields several Short-eared Owls were hunting. In the lagoon, there were good numbers of Shovelers, Gadwalls, Teals, Wigeons, Black-winged stilts, Avocets, a flock of Spoonbills amongst others. To summarize my visit here: Well worth it!
The other area I wanted to see was the Parque Natural Hoces del Rio Duraton, the Grand Canyon of Castilla y Leon. This canyon has up to 100 meter cliffs and is a breeding site for numerous raptors. First and foremost up to 500 pairs of Griffon Vultures! We stayed in Sepulveda and drove to the small village of Villaseca, and walked the about 6km from there in to the Ermita de San Fruto, the monastery at the cliffs. All the spaniards going there were driving, but as we went early we had the dirt track for ourselves. And what a nice steppe area before approaching the canyon: I had Duponts Lark, Calandra Larks, Wood Larks, Thekla Larks, Tawny pipits, Black-eared Wheatears, Spectacled warbler etc etc. I can really recommend to walk this track in stead of driving which most birders would do. At the cliffs where the Ermita is situated, there were of course a lot of Griffons, a pair of Egyptian Vultures and a Peregrine. I would recommend to stay half-a-day in this area, focusin on the dry steppe at sunrise and stay at the cliffs to look fo raptors and Black Storks when the thermal is rising.
To summarize the visit to the huge region of Castilla y Leon: Very well worth a visit and also with a very good infrastructure for tourists: Good hotels (like the Paradores), very good food, good roads, abundance of both well known and hidden gems and do not forget the wine district of the Duero valley.
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