THE CRANES ARE BACK!

 1 hour from Finca al-manzil

Each winter, starting at the beginning of November and continuing until late February thousands of Common Crane (grus grus) decend upon Extremadura from their breeding grounds in Northern Europe. At the peak of their migration there are up to 20,000 between 15 December – 15 January. There are two specific areas where they arrive. One is South of Badajoz and the other is Dehesa Moheda Alta South of Gudalupe within the irrigation system of the Guadiana river near Obando. There are hundreds of hectares of rice fields nearby as well as arable land and huge areas of dehesa covered with cork oak and holm oak both laden with ripe acorns that start to fall at this time of the year. These are ideal conditions for the cranes, they gorge on acorns, insects and herbs in the dehesa and grains of rice and corn left after harvest in the fields. It’s a wonderful sight to see these huge birds crowned with a startling red crest grazing amongst the trees together with the chubby iberic black pigs who have free range of the dehesa for fattening purposes. They form large separate groups of several hundred birds, however, family groups of adults and the current year’s chicks, one to three, can be seen grazing by themselves. All very fascinating, the cranes are quite content to graze within a short distance of passing walkers. There are two observation towers in the area which give an even better viewpoint.