In the middle of the Zamora cereal field, like an oasis breaking the sobriety of the infinite landscape, a saline lagoon complex of more than thirty thousand hectares is witness to the migratory movements of thousands of birds between Europe and Africa, as well as the home of the largest mainland bustard colony.
In this setting, where sunsets and sunrises have magical connotations, it is also one of the main peninsular strongholds of the friendly lesser kestrel.
The saline waters, which were once the subject of medieval disputes between monks and nobles, are the ideal environment for a vast array of invertebrates, although the genuine explosion of color and sounds is provided by the aquatic birds that make up more than half of those censused. in Castile and León. Contemplating the silver surface of the water, suddenly broken by groups of multicolors full of life, is a unique spectacle.
On the shores of one of the large lagoons stands a robust building with the typical typology of the dovecotes that reign in the landscape, inside which the El Plomar Park House is housed. The reception is located around a bright central patio where all the necessary information is given to know the natural space in detail, followed by a tour of the glass arcades full of explanatory and audiovisual panels with the values of the Network of Natural Spaces of Castile and León and the Lagunas de Villafáfila Nature Reserve itself.
Following the signs on the ground you access the area where the reasons why this territory was so important from prehistory to the present day, the symbiosis between man and nature in the adaptation process, curiosities of seasonality are explained. of the lagoons and why this lagoon complex is one of the most important in the Iberian Peninsula from an ornithological point of view.
A camera installed in one of the lagoons allows you to see the daily life of the birds in real time, thus completing the experience of a closer and non-intrusive contact with the world of the true protagonists of the ecosystem.
The "Memory Corner" provides a vision of the past in these lands, how nature conditioned the way of life, its traditional adobe architecture, its customs as a fundamental part of a rich ethnographic heritage.
At the top of the building there is a magnificent viewpoint that allows an extraordinary and at the same time captivating view of the protected space and through some holes you can see the recreation of the interior of a dovecote.
Finally, a fifteen-minute audiovisual provides a more in-depth review of the environmental and human values of a territory that houses some of the most important Spanish wetlands.
