Desde hace tiempo me rondaba por la cabeza ir hasta las lagunas de Gallocanta, y observar desde un hide las Grullas. Así es que hace meses empezaron los mail y las llamadas telefónicas para reservar uno de los tres hide. Por fin, en el mes de Diciembre obtuve la confirmación del hide A para el 11 de febrero.
The hide is a popular resource for nature photographers, allows the observation of wild fauna and thereby obtain new images of the same. Just giving you exceptional opportunities, you should know that there are long waiting times and hard, where animals show no signs of life. No one can say that when you get "that picture" all these moments are worth it.
Then I will tell you a bit on the hide consisting of Gallocanta and all that entails, but first I know a little bit more to the protagonists of this story, the cranes.
The common crane ( Grus grus ) is a migratory bird, so its presence in these gaps depend on the time of year . From mid-October to early November , the influx of these birds is from northern countries in search of higher temperatures. During December to mid-February and the population will remain constant , this being the most important place in the Iberian Peninsula in the number of birds. Specifically this year , the figure was 33,000 .
During the night are in their roosts in the lagoon, and at dawn despazan in large groups to the suburbs to feed grain cereal. That's when we took advantage from the made for observation and photography.
But how did it?
First, with whom to contact , The Government of Aragón is who governs all this, the contact is Sodemasa , being able to contact them via email : desarrollogallocanta@sodemasa.com or by phone at 978 734 078 . They themselves will send you an application to fill out and you have to make a deposit of 15 euros for booking made for a journey.
The hide is located in the town of Bello , so you need to look for accommodation near to this place . Gallocanta We stayed in a rustic cottage called Allucant with nice modern rooms , a reading room with hundreds of books and beautiful images of wildlife for their walls. Really a great place, and in which we were treated great.
Get there a day before the day of booking , we arrived in the afternoon and left with one of the guards to give us the keys to the hide . You have the ability to prime around the hide with cereal, a bag of 15 kilos for 15 euros.
The rules of the hide , which should lead to split table an hour to get there before sunrise (February approximately 7:00 pm) and leave an hour after sunset (19:15 hours), you can not leave under any circumstances (except force majeure and always calling the guards ) . This is the " hard " work of nature photographer , you have to endure no matter what and then how cold it is (which is a lot).
We decided to go to prime the feed bag half hours, as there was possibility of snow and grain would be buried under it. But what was our surprise, when we arrived about 20:15 pm, a huge herd of pigs was eating all the bait of the other hide! Conclusion: you have to prime the morning!
The hide is very small for "two" people, with two wooden stools. Do not forget to bring a network to cover the windows and the cranes will not see.
The sunrise is spectacular honeys cranes flying across the sky, which acquire beautiful colors at this time of the morning. And then, slowly approaching the cranes will hide, eating grain and has exhibited in front of us. Actually, to be within the hide gives you opportunities to photograph it was you were not present.
Images also available on the web