Right on the westernmost border of the Sierra
Morena in Andalusia, only one-and-a-half hours from Doñana, lies the
vast area called Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche (Huelva province).
Its 300,000 hectares take in several different sorts of Mediterranean
landscape, such as rivers fringed with Oleander and Bushweed, leafy
oakwoods, Mediterranean heaths, its trademark Chestnut woods,
well-conserved riverside copses and vast dehesas that serve as perfect
examples of what we call today the "sustainable use" of our natural
resources.
Nature lovers are spoilt for choice in the Sierra de
Aracena y Picos de Aroche. Ideally we should just relax and give our
curiosity free rein, trying to learn from every experience that might
come along, ranging from the tiny file of ants marching along the forest
floor to the huge Cinereous Vulture soaring overhead. Other fascinating
sights and sounds await us round every corner, like the sinister beauty
of the Fly Agaric, the intricate blooms of orchids, the mantises and
their lethal embrace, the night-time choirs of frogs and toads, a
fleeting Mongoose flashing by, millenary rocks weathered to incredible
smoothness, the delicately tumbling leaves of a Chestnut Tree in autumn,
the staggering beauty and power of the Nightingales song in spring.
This
book, designed to be useful both for expert naturalists and rank
beginners, pools 17 nature-watching outings of different types (car
rides, walks, family-friendly strolls and fixed lookout points) and
different degrees of difficulty. Between them all they usher us into the
wonderland of wildlife, unspoilt countryside and local traditions that
is Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche, including such standout species
as the Black Stork, the White-Rumped Swift, the Iberian Chiffchaff, the
Rufous-Tailed Scrub Robin, the Short-Toed Eagle, the Portuguese
Helleborine, the Spanish Funnel-web Spider and even some endemic
freshwater fish species.
With this work, the publisher Editorial
La Serranía inaugurates the collection of guidebooks titled "Birding and
Nature Trails in Sierra Morena". In this collection a total of four
titles in Spanish and four more in English will be published in the
following months, namely the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche; the
Northern Campiña of Jaen; the Cordoban Sierra Morena and the Sierra
Morena of Seville. These eight volumes, together with the two books that
have already been published on the Serranía de Ronda and the Sierra de
Huétor, as well as the books on Fuente de Piedra and the Sierra de las
Nieves to which the final touches are being put, will mean that in a few
months the Ronda publisher will boast a total of 15 titles on
Andalucían ornithology.
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