Part 8: Our Natural Park

We are fortunate enough to live just a mile or so from one of Extremadura´s natural parks: Cornalvo. (For those curious to know the difference between a natural park and a national park, it is simple. A national park is administered by the central government in Madrid and a natural park is administered by the regional government, in our case in the nearby city of Mérida, capital of Extremadura.)

At 11,600 hectares Cornalvo is rather a small park, but its diminutive size means that a lucky visitor can get to see most of its stellar species on a single trip. Weekends usually find us hiking one of its many trails, binoculars in one hand and hefty stick in the other. The binoculars are for the birds, and the sticks are a somewhat optimistic safeguard against the attentions of the park’s mastiff population. The mastiffs are there to protect the sheep that inhabit the many private fincas that are included within Cornalvo´s boundaries. Intelligent they may be, but they have yet to learn that we are not sheep rustlers.

As we spend so much time in the park, we have baptised some of its features with helpful names; Kingfisher Corner, Stork Bridge and Turtle Bend, to name but a few. These names have a similar sort of feeling as some of the dates on our calendar such as; Gecko Day, the day on which we see the first gecko of the year and, of course, Orange Day, the day on which we harvest the last orange of the year.

The main feature of the park is the dehesa, the typical scrub oak groves of Extremadura, home to an amazing number of different species of birds and mammals. The dehesa also provides the acorns so beloved of the local pig population. Pigs are an omnipresent feature of life in Extremadura, either alive as they snuffle through the undergrowth for acorns and other delicacies, or dead in the form of ham, chorizo and the huge, juicy pork steaks known as churrascos. The quality of the local acorn-fed ham is legendary, and as long as you are sure that the pigs have been fed solely on acorns for the last three months of their lives, the resultant ham is not only delicious, but also actually lowers cholesterol. But once again, I digress.

We are forever telling visitors about all the wonderful birds and mammals to be seen in the park, so many of them are quite excited when we tell them of our plans to have a long walk in the park followed by a hearty lunch in the bar opposite the entrance to Cornalvo. Together Cheryl and I take turns in giving the lowdown on all the interesting things we are likely to see on the hike. One of the most common and perhaps the most beautiful of birds in the park is the azure-winged magpie. Found in the Iberian Peninsula and in Japan and China, but nowhere in between, this gorgeous bird is so common that it could serve as some sort of symbol for the park. We have, of course, never seen a single specimen when we have been for a walk with our visitors. And I doubt that any of our guests really believe it when we tell them what we saw one day last autumn.

The short-toed eagle is known in Spanish as the aguila culebrera, which might translate as snake-eating eagle. This was the bird that was once the subject of a wonderful BBC documentary. As we strolled through the entrance of the park on a sunny day in October of last year we saw a large bird take off from the shade of some eucalyptus trees a few yards to our left. It appeared to be carrying something and upon further inspection with the aid of binoculars, that something turned out to be a large snake. We then watched in stunned silence as the eagle, hovering some thirty feet above our heads proceeded to swallow the still struggling snake gulp by gulp. When the last bit of the tail disappeared down the bird’s throat, it suddenly seemed to become aware of our presence and flew off to the safety of the trees. Naturally, we have seen such a spectacle just once, but who knows when it might repeat itself, and the next time Mr. Eagle, could you please do it when we have got visitors?

Articles in the series:

Introduction to Pete's Tale

Part 1: Village Life

Part 2: Bichos

Part 3: A Two-Bar Town

Part 4: Fruit and Veg

Part 5: Summer

Part 6: Politics

Part 7: Noise

Part 8: Our natural park

Part 9: New Year's Eve

Part 10: Timetables

Part 11: The Land Where the Pig is King

Part 12: How Not to Buy a House

Part 13: That First Winter

Part 14: The Extremeño Spring

Part 15: To be a Pilgrim

Part 16: A Change is Coming

Part 17: Wine Talk

Part 18: Free For All

Part 19: How Do You Spell Asparagus?

Part 20: Designer Peas