It translates to "Gypsy Jump" - there was a gypsy outlaw in the Sierra de Monfragüe who used to hide in the caves and rob merchants crossing the Río Tajo at the nearby Puente Del Cardenal, the only spot for miles where the river could be crossed. He had robbed and killed a wealthy merchant and was being chased by some civil guards until he was cornered at a rocky bend in the Tajo with the river rushing past below. With nothing to lose, he made the giant leap to freedom and evaded capture.
Birdwatchers stand in a line in the baking midday sun pointing their telescopes at the Peña Falcón, an enormous pyramid of rock on the far bank - the side of the gypsy's escape. The rock is covered in maybe a hundred or so nesting Griffon Vultures with small - by vulture standards - chicks lying prostrate on their bit of ledge. The Griffons make the spectacle, but the birdwatchers are more interested in picking out Black Storks, Egyptian Vultures or Eagle Owls amongst them. This is one of the top attractions on an Extremadura bird tour. Few of the assembled birdwatchers look capable of matching that gypsy's feat and anyway, in 1969, a hydro-electric dam was constructed downriver, raising the water level and massively broadened the river to the extent that now the idea of leaping across the Tajo here is absurd. The ancient stones of the Puente Del Cardenal are also underwater now except in times of extreme drought, replaced with a modern road bridge.
The Griffon Vultures kettle above the Peña Falcón until they are a distant speck in the sky, then they soar over the vast expanses of dehesa and llanos for hundreds of miles in search of fallen livestock. The evening before, as a red sun set over the llanos, in a rocky and scrubby field we found fifteen Griffon Vultures and three Black Vultures feeding on a carcass. Up close their features were delicate and gentle - but still, the ground seemed to ripple beneath the hulking wings of a Black Vulture as it flew off.
The llanos are the treeless, flat grasslands favoured by Bustards and Rollers that are extensively grazed with livestock. The vultures are sustained by the llanos and also the dehesa: a landscape of sparsely dotted Cork Oak and Holm Oak, the poor soils often supporting rich wildflower meadows between the trees, sometimes carpeted in the rich purples of flowering Viper's-Bugloss at this time of year. The Pata Negra of Extremadura snuffle under the trees for the acorns that give Jamón Ibérico its extraordinary nutty flavour. The dehesa was created from the 18th century onwards by the thinning and burning the thick Mediterranean scrub woodland to make way for what we'd now call a multi-functional landscape that produces Hoopoes and Black Vultures, Pork and Cork. Oliver Rackham, the noted historian of woodlands, wrote in 2001 that the overexploitation of natural resources and the intensification of grazing and cultivation in these lands had left behind wastelands and devastated forests - perhaps in his lament for the decline of the primary scrub woodland, he noticed little of the llanos or the dehesa. Fashion moves fast in conservation though - now multi-functionality and wood pasture attract much interest, and many open country species like Rollers and Little Bustards are in rapid decline while Black Vultures and Imperial Eagles depend on undisturbed, mature areas of dehesa to build their enormous nests. The clearance of dehesa and the cultivation of the llanos brings with it many challenges for birds. But dehesa or llanos are not primeval habitats or climax vegetation states - there is little thought here to rewilding or the restoration the primary Mediterranean scrub woodland - the challenge here is to sustain the cultural landscape which preserves a way of life, unique products of much cultural significance, and a suite of cherished threatened species.
As the day slipped away, the sky glowed red over the Llanos de Cáceres and our thoughts turned to jamón y queso, we heard an unfamiliar call. Though we couldn't make much of the outrageous colours, we knew from the way it flew that it was a solitary, distant Roller.
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