We recommend you start out this route in the afternoon in order to get good sunlight.

Start out from Allucant hostel towards huertos de los Aguanares, where you will find some sign posts and an observatory from which you can watch several migratory and summer birds.

Follow the path and cross the Royo and la Cañada streams (two bridges cross them further up, if the water current is too strong) until you come to the Virgen del Buen Acuerdo hermitage. Here you will find a picnic area where you can take a rest and an observatory from where you can watch most of the aquatic species.

Further on, the path turns to the right leading to los Ojos observatory. The Ojos reed swamps predominate from here on. This is an ideal spot where you can observe cranes entering the roost at sunset.

Go on towards Las Cuerlas through a steppe area where you can find lots of thyme, lavender, gorse, tobago... and steppe birds such as black-bellied sandgrouses, little bustards, stone curlews, bustards, little owls, plovers, wheatears or even Dupont's larks. Go up the hill to the San Pedro hermitage to get a good view of the basin.

Then continue towards one of the areas with the greatest ecological value, featuring a unique vegetation community because of the mix of fresh and brackish water. From la Reguera observatory you can get a chance to watch some of the biggest concentrations of diving ducks and other water birds. Go on for another 1.5 kilometres and you will come to la Pardina, where you can spot bustards and enjoy a view overlooking the Puccinellia pungens brackish marshes. Keep on the path until you come to Bello and, if you wish, you can make the excursion longer and go to Torralba de los Sisones, where there are lots of steppe birds and where you can see the Carabejas ponds.

[Map (Pdf/25 Kb)]