- Time of past OR future Camino
- Many, various, and continuing.
FYI, bird watchers!
There is a healthy flock of Great Bustards ("avutarda" in Spanish, "Otis tarda" in Latin) living on the flat wet plains between Carrion de los Condes and Calzadilla de la Cueza. Avutarda are the heaviest birds in the world that are able to fly. They were almost extinct in the 1980s, and are still listed as "endangered" by world wildlife officials.
The average avutarda weighs 16 kilos and is a meter tall. He looks like a long-neck goose or a turkey from a distance, and hangs out on treeless plains, usually with several more avutardas. They don't much like flying, but if you see one take off you can ID him from his great size and the big white marks on his wings.
There are between 13,000 and 15,000 avutarda in Spain; about 8,000 live in Castilla y Leon. I am not a bird expert, but several times I have seen a flock of up to 20 avutarda on this stretch of Camino -- a place noted for having "nothing at all to look at." (Saw seven of them out there today.)
They can also be seen in abundance on stretches of the Camino Madrid, Ruta de la Lana, Levante, Via de la Plata.. all those wide-open Castilian and Extremaduran plains.
There is a healthy flock of Great Bustards ("avutarda" in Spanish, "Otis tarda" in Latin) living on the flat wet plains between Carrion de los Condes and Calzadilla de la Cueza. Avutarda are the heaviest birds in the world that are able to fly. They were almost extinct in the 1980s, and are still listed as "endangered" by world wildlife officials.
The average avutarda weighs 16 kilos and is a meter tall. He looks like a long-neck goose or a turkey from a distance, and hangs out on treeless plains, usually with several more avutardas. They don't much like flying, but if you see one take off you can ID him from his great size and the big white marks on his wings.
There are between 13,000 and 15,000 avutarda in Spain; about 8,000 live in Castilla y Leon. I am not a bird expert, but several times I have seen a flock of up to 20 avutarda on this stretch of Camino -- a place noted for having "nothing at all to look at." (Saw seven of them out there today.)
They can also be seen in abundance on stretches of the Camino Madrid, Ruta de la Lana, Levante, Via de la Plata.. all those wide-open Castilian and Extremaduran plains.
