The Humedals of Cadiz Province - newly established sited are shown in red. Green circles indicate three surprising (to me at any rate) omissions,
(42.28 ha) The Junta de Andalucía maintains a list, Inventario de Humedales de Andalucía (IHA), of protected 'wetlands' in the region which they periodically update (see here ). The most recent revision was published in October 2025 when a total of 229 sites were designated in Almeria (18), Cadiz (38), Córdoba (31), Grenade (26), Huelva (35), Jaén (18), Malaga (25) and Seville (38). This revision added five new sites to the inventory all but one of which are in Cadiz Province (the exception being Laguna de la Alberca, (52.01 ha) near Ronda, Malaga Province). The four new sites In Cadiz Province are Lagunas de Bonanza (aka Lagunas de Camino Colorado), Marismas de Cetina (see here), Haza de la Torre (see here) and Huerta de las Pilas.
Lagunas de Bonanza and Marismas de Cetina (see here) are regular haunts of mine (see previous blogs). Unfortunately, access to Haza de la Torre (see here) is not permitted but there are much delayed plans to open it up for visitors and provide a watch tower. I've only once visited Huerta de las Pilas which is obscurely tucked away on the outskirts of Algeciras. Checking the information on this small (3.73 ha) laguna, I was surprised to discover that the only animals listed for the site were Squacco Heron and Ferruginous Duck. On my visit there were no ducks at all and very few reeds making it an unlikely spot for either species.
Charca de la Camilla, Grazalema I've only visited Huerta de las Pilas once and confess that I wasn't hugely impressed. I'm sure that getting lost in the one-way streets in the nearby suburb of Algeciras en route didn't help and neither did failing to find my target, a Red-knobbed Coot, that had been reported there a few days earlier. As it's an old man-made steep-sided water-filled pit with scant vegetation, it has the advantage of being easy to scan. However, I found few birds and decided it wasn't worth the faff (and seem to have deleted all my photos of the place!
Huerta de las Pilas
Note that although 'humedals' is usually translated into English as 'wetlands', this is somewhat misleading. The English word conjures up an image of vast areas of marsh and reedbed with numerous plants and animals of interested present, but 'humedals' also embraces tiny, often transitory, ponds.
At one extreme there's Charca de la Camilla, Grazalema (see here ) which is tiny (0.04 ha), roughly shield shaped laguna measuring c33m long and c20m across at its greatest breadth (but far smaller after an extended drought). It's listed for the presences of just four amphibians, Iberian Frog, Fire Salamander, Marbled and Southern Marbled Newts. It's about a kilometre as the crow flies over a ridge from a minor road between Grazalema and Zahara de la Frontera, but much further to get to on foot along a serpentine footpath. At the other extreme there's the Bahía de Cádiz (see here) which sprawls across 10,522.04 ha, takes several pages to describe and hosts multiple species.
At one extreme there's Charca de la Camilla, Grazalema (see here ) which is tiny (0.04 ha), roughly shield shaped laguna measuring c33m long and c20m across at its greatest breadth (but far smaller after an extended drought). It's listed for the presences of just four amphibians, Iberian Frog, Fire Salamander, Marbled and Southern Marbled Newts. It's about a kilometre as the crow flies over a ridge from a minor road between Grazalema and Zahara de la Frontera, but much further to get to on foot along a serpentine footpath. At the other extreme there's the Bahía de Cádiz (see here) which sprawls across 10,522.04 ha, takes several pages to describe and hosts multiple species.
Bahía de Cádiz
Of the 38 sites listed, I've managed to visit (or view) all but four sites. Not surprisingly, three of the unvisited sites are small difficult to access locations in mountainous areas with limited birdlife. These are Charca de la Camilla, Laguna del Perezoso and, most embarrassingly, Lagunetas de Alcala. All but the first site are small lagunas (04 ha, 0.27 ha & 0.38 ha respectively) tucked away in the mountains. The Lagunetas de Alcala consists of two small lagunas (although the smaller one of which appears completely dry - see photo above). They're situated just beyond the end of the Molinos valley walk and next to the cycle route. Listed for their (limited?) botanical interest, I've never been inclined to visit them.
Lagunetas de Alcala 
The start of the sendero off the service road (c2.6 km south of Junction 4 to Lagunas de Canteras & el Tejon. The odd one out on the list of unvisited sites is Laguna el Tejon (9.72 ha) which is located in rolling farmland just south of Jerez de la Frontera close to the Laguna de la Canteras - 6.3 ha). It's listed for the presence (not necessarily breeding) of Black Stork, Red-knobbed Coot, Marbled Duck, White-headed Duck, Osprey, Squacco Heron, Ferruginous Duck and Black Tern plus Viperine Snake, Western Spadefoot Toad and Iberian Ribbed Newt. Over a decade ago , not being precisely sure where these two lagunas were, I cheekily drove along farm tracks until I blundered across Laguna de la Canteras. It looked superb with Black-necked Grebe and plenty of ducks (etc) but I'd scarcely arrived when a farmworker appeared and politely asked me to leave. I've since discovered that the 2.7 km track to Laguna de las Canteras is a footpath (sendero) albeit an unmarked one but this path doesn't appear to extend as far as Laguna el Tejon which is tucked away out of sight. I've always meant to go back but there's no guarantee that the lagunas will be full (or even wet at all) and a walk of over 5 km in the hot Spanish sun doesn't appeal (particularly as all the species listed can potentially be seen more easily nearby at Laguna de Medina), But perhaps the real reason was that the farmworker was herding a large group of impressively horned cattle that straddled across the road ...
Several of the remaining humedals can only be viewed fairly distantly from nearby roads (for example Marismas de Casa Blanca, Haza del Torre [see here], Laguna de Montelano, and Laguna de San Antonio) whilst others are so comprehensively screened by trees that viewing is very difficult (Lagunas Comisario, Montelano & Jeli, Lagunas Salada & Chica in the Lagunas de Santa Maria complex). Very few have hides - Laguna de Medina, Marismas de Cetina, Lagunas de Espera and Lagunas de Bonanza are exceptions - but even some of these are obscured by vegetation or poorly placed.
Looking through the list it's not always very clear what criteria are being used to include some sites but not others. With some listed sites being very small, sometimes dry and with scant evidence of particular importance why haven't the Marismas de Trebujena been listed? With part of the area consisting of a new reserve with extensive pools and huge areas of interesting halophytic vegetation providing one of the last areas for Pin-tailed Sandgrouse in Cadiz plus Spectacled Warbler, both short-toed larks and, when wet, huge numbers of waders, it surely has as good a case for protection as other sites listed. Similarly, I've often found that the shallow Laguna de Los Tercios (see here for my most recent visit to the site) has far more birds than the nearby listed Lagunas de El Puerto de Santa Maria (and easier to scan). The other "missing" site is La Janda. On one level this is understandable as the laguna here was drained decades ago but this ignores that the remaining pools and cut-offs (plus drainage channels) harbour a lot of 'wetland' species. In this case, there are wealthy vested interests who are strongly opposed to restoration of the laguna and who presumably oppose any move that might support such a plan.
Laguna de Los Tercios
.
RSS Feed
