Traveling in Spain recently, my friends and I concentrated on seeing the fabulous art and historic sites throughout that magnificent country. This was not meant to be a birding trip, alas. We did drive along the scenic coast, and eventually down to Donana National Park, where we spent a day indulging in nature. During the drive we were treated to the lovely site of hundreds of pink flamingos feeding in wetland areas alongside the road. Flamingos are both graceful and ungainly in appearance…tall, pink-colored wading birds, with long legs that dangle behind them as they fly, and equally long necks, topped off by a small head with a curved beak that looks as if it could crack walnuts. (Actually their beaks are made to scoop up the briny water which contains the plankton and tiny fish on which they feed). Spain has a large wetland preserve for flamingos, and as we whizzed by the flamingos we saw by the highway, I regretted that our busy schedule of touring art and cultural sites in Spain would not permit a visit.
I regretted this even more several nights later in a hotel room in Madrid, when I was channel surfing after a full day at the Prado Museum. A documentary was on, showing thousands of flamingos, narrated in Spanish, and I felt chagrined again at not visiting the preserve in Andalucia. But wait, to my great surprise, I realized that this film was about a Biosphere Refuge in Mexico, which has the largest concentration of nesting flamingos in the world.
The Refuge is Rio Lagartos, located on the Yucatan Peninsula, and home to thousands of American (Greater) Flamingos. Although flamingos are found in warm climates throughout the Americas, Africa and Eurasia, this site in Mexico was designated a Biosphere Refuge in 1979 to protect the massive numbers of flamingos that nest there each year. Each spring, many thousands of flamingos build their mud cone nests near the lagoons. (Also found in this coastal area are approximately 270 other species of birds, as well as hawk bill and green turtles). Rio Lagartos is a series of shallow lagoons and estuaries where the Maya extracted salt for centuries. Salt mining is still an important activity. But fortunately, ecotourism has become popular in the area due to the fame of the flamingos, and trips can be arranged to view them from a boat. Over 57,000 hectares has been set aside for their protection, and the local people have grown to appreciate the value of the flamingo.
Protection is an important issue for the flamingo, as they were hunted for centuries and still suffer decimation from flying into high-tension wires, and from the capriciousness of tropical storms. They typically only lay one egg each season, and the mortality rates can be high. When the young are a few days of age, they are corralled into small areas by the adult flamingos so they can be cared for communally. Flamingos are extremely social and cooperative birds. They live in close proximity to each other, in enormous colonies of several hundred to many thousand birds. They fly together in a V-shaped formation, with their long necks and wings extended. They stand nearly four feet tall, and when they call, they make a loud honking and cackling, which has been described as goose-like.
So, in Madrid, getting ready to return home to Mexico, and while sorry not to have seen more of Spain’s birds and wildlife, I felt consoled. I began planning my next trip, to the Yucatan, to see the flamingos of Mexico.
