Extremadura – Spring 2016
In the spring of 2016, the Guildford RSPB group organised a trip to Extremadura in Spain that was guided by Naturetrek. It proved to be so popular that the group was split into two cohorts for two separate weeks with eighteen of us going for each week. I went for the second week with Carol.
Saturday 16 April, 2016
We were met at Madrid airport by Byron, our Naturetrek guide. We needed three vans to transport us so Mike and Adrian from our group kindly agreed to be the additional drivers. It was quite a long drive to the Casa Rural Las Canteras, where we were to be based, so we stopped a few times along the way for coffee and some birdwatching.
The first sight to greet us on arrival were the many white storks nesting on the various outbuildings. There were also hundreds of House and Spanish Sparrows circling round before coming in to roost for the night in the bushes of the garden. Our host pointed out a Little Owl on a wall in the fields and, in the following days, we also saw Little Bustards from the same place. There was a telescope set up in the dining-room/conservatory which pointed in just the right direction.