At the end of January we
visited the southern part of the Sierra de Francia and the lush Alagon river
valley with its mix of Holm oak, Cork oak, Chestnut, Strawberry tree and Pyrenean
oak, and a local population of Black vulture, Golden eagle, Goshawk and Sparrow
hawk.
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| Pair of Black Vulture |
In the village of
Pinedas we had a look at the old houses with their incorporated hay lofts and
the local church, and the views from the bell tower were stunning, but what
surprised us most was that they also went back in time. Crouched by the ‘lavaderos’ – the old
communal washing place - was a local woman……doing her washing. Needless to say the water temperature must
have been about 3ºC but there she was. Tough
folk.
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| Mended church pillar |
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| Moss world |
We went for coffee in a
bar decorated with objects from former times: farming tools and bee-keeping
equipment. A local man, Modesto, saw me
looking at some flutes and, explaining that he’d made them invited us to visit
his workshop, which we did. Here we
found a whole menagerie of creatures and objects carved in local wood: hawthorn
and oak the most favoured. Here’s a few
of them.
We walked along the
south side of the Alagon valley, and just after arriving saw the most wonderful
Russian mountain display of a male Golden Eagle which had me so mesmerized I
forgot to get my camera out. He kept
plunging downwards and then looping up again only to repeat the process after a
few wingbeats: absolutely stunning.
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| Alagon valley |
Then a pair of Black
vulture appeared and flew up valley, and as we stopped by a pool we were
watching some Bullfinches when suddenly a Sparrow hawk appeared and sent them
fleeing. Fortunately for the bullfinches
they had a narrow escape.
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| The Alagon valley |
Further upstream we
entered the valley of the Sangusin river and began to descend along the trail,
with tall holm oak and Pyrenean oak towering above us and their roots exposed
to the air. We found wild boar tracks
and their unmistakable mud-baths: along a narrower track we even found a double
bath, a kind of boar bath-house. And we were privileged
to see a Goshawk swooping along the valley.
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| Sangusin River |
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| WIld boar tracks and mudbath |
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| Boar jacuzzi |
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| Sangusin valley and the Sierra de Bejar |
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| Sunset over Sierra de Francia |
In late January we had a
lovely walk towards the Sierra de Avila, and just as we got there a pair of
Black vulture circled overhead quite low.
We saw Buzzard Water and Meadow pipits and a couple of very busy Rock
Bunting which let me photograph them from quite close.
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| Black vulture |
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| Buzzard |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Rock Bunting |
In the walls at regular
intervals are holes through which small fauna can pass, and this being a
transhumance track (Cañada Real) there are enclosures for sheep and shepherd
huts. There was still plenty of snow on the ground and some intriguing melted
tracks which were probably badger.
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| Fauna pass |
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| Sheep enclosure with Shepherd hut |
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| Not bear! |
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The Sierra de Avila
We also came across
tracks compatible with Genet and on the roof of a barn a latrine typical of
this elusive and beautiful mammal.
|
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| Compatible with Genet |
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| Rooftop latrine |
We went on a very
interesting course to study Iberian wolf, with wolf specialist Javier Talegón
of Llobu (pronounced ‘lyoboo’ in English: the local name for wolf in the north
of Zamora and the Astur-Leonés area). We learnt all about the wolf, it's social structure, and the cultural
importance of wolves through the ages, how the wolf has been demonized and hunted
down and yet the importance of its role in maintaining an equilibrium in the environment. How shepherds and wolves have cohabited
throughout time and what efforts can be made to protect sheep and cattle
without needing to harm wolves.
The Spanish Mastiff is the guardian dog used
traditionally to protect sheep and cattle, and Javier showed us his collection
of spiked collars – known as ‘carranca’
-, some very much home-made, donated by retired shepherds over the years and
which protect the dogs from being bitten on the neck.
We had a field trip to
the Sierra de la Culebra in Zamora, a very wild hilly area in which the local
packs of wolves still survive despite persecution by hunters and maintain
themselves on a diet of mainly wild boar, roe deer and red deer. As they generally only attack the very young,
ailing or elder specimens they afford a method of natural control in an area
otherwise overgrazed by the deer. On the link below you
can see a very interesting video on the reintroduction of wolves into
Yellowstone National Park in the USA and the amazing effect this had on the
ecosystem, in the form of a trophic cascade:
We visited a small
village with traditional architecture consisting of human living quarters above
the animal quarters as a natural form of central heating.
We wandered through oak and
pine forests, and saw tracks and scats containing hair from wild boar and deer compatible
with wolf, as well as fox, badger and roe deer tracks. We saw herds of Red deer and a couple of Roe
deer and we got rained, hailed and snowed on but unfortunately we didn’t get to
see wolves. Never mind: it was an amazing
experience and we learnt a great deal.
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| Scat compatible with wolf |
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| Herd of Red deer |
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| In all weathers |
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Watching and waiting
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| Rainbow over the Sierra Culebra |
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