Laguna de Fuente de Piedra

While we were in the process of booking our week in Spain i spent hours on Google Earth looking for places reasonably close to the villa that would be worth a visit.
During that search i came across pictures of hundreds of Flamingo's which were either wading or feeding in the lagune.
Four months later we were in Spain, and planning our trip to Laguna de Fuente de piedra to see and photograph the flamingo's.

You've heard the saying, "The best laid plans of mice and men", well due to the fact that that area of Andalucia hadn't had any rain since March this year, the lagune was bone dry, not a Flamingo in sight, just 15 square miles of salt.

The lagune is a recognised nature reserve, there are miles of footpaths close to the lagune, but no actual access to what would have been the waters edge, well not for the general public. Bev and i walked for around an hour, but were glad to get back to the safety of the very impressive visitors centre. I say safety, the heat outside was actually uncomfortable after around 20 minutes.

There may not have been any flamingo's about, but despite the heat there was still a lot of other species on view, Buzzards and Kites, through all sort of birds i've never seen before to Terns, Tits and Sparrows.

Today's blip is of a Black Winged Stilt. Longer legs.........

As for the Lagune, it is a fabulous place, i'll defenitely visit again, but either much earlier or later in the year.

j.