Wildlife watching in Extremadura

Otis tarda

Passion for animals

Wildlife watchingMy name is José Carlos Carrascal Hernández, 40 years old, I have a degree in Environmental Sciences from the USAL in 2007, and a Master in Protected Natural Areas from the UAM in 2008. One of my main passions is to be in contact with nature and I love to spend time wildlife watching in Extremadura. Since I was a kid, I started “devouring” books, videos and everything related to nature… I remember a collection of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente with which I learned a lot of what I know today.

However, the important thing was to experiment, whenever I could I took the bike and got lost on the roads of my village to investigate its forests, plains, streams, lagoons… If someone came with me, great, but if I didn’t leave just until the night brought me back.

I decided to create this page during the COVID time, several years ago… At the beginning it was a section of https://topfishing.net/ but due to its success I separated it some time ago. Then I decided to create a different entire web, exclusively dedicated to wildlife watching. Since October, 2024 I also decided to dedicate myself professionally to this, and start working as a nature guide.

Will I be able to dedicate my whole life to it? Time will tell, but I have no lack of passion, no desire to undertake, and I think I have enough knowledge and experience to be able to offer a great service. Do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in hiring a Birding or nature GUIDE, I will try to offer you an authentic, unique and personalized experience, according to your preferences.

Wildlife Watching, Why Extremadura?

My village is Lumbrales, a small town in the west of Salamanca, located in the Arribes del Duero. A town I am very proud of, also located in a beautiful area that, fortunately or unfortunately, is very uninhabited. I encourage you all to visit it one day. I lived here until I was 18 and of course I still go there quite often. Later on, the university stage arrived and I moved to Salamanca. There, among other very good people, I met my good friend Manuel from Cáceres, who is passionate about sport fishing and nature just like me.

Otis tarda
Great bustards in La Serena

I’ll remember all my life that first day I went to Extremadura to fish for black bass with him. We went to a small reservoir, near Monfragüe, where I was lucky enough to see for the first time the imperial eagle. On the way (we went a few times) we also always saw deer, fallow deer, black vultures, other eagles… and many more animals that I was not fortunate enough to see frequently. Since then, I started to visit Extremadura quite often, taking advantage of bridges and holidays…

And little by little I fell in love with its dehesas, forests, steppes, fluvial ecosystems… where I could observe a multitude of fauna species.

I would like to share with all of you a few lines about each of the animals that live here, its main ecosystems and areas of greatest faunal value. I have been lucky enough to see almost all the animals here, and I hope that all this information will help you to enjoy the wildlife watching in Extremadura as I have.