When I first visited Laguna de los Tollos in 2011 my expectations were low as I'd read that the claypits here had wrecked the local hydrology and ruined what had once been a premier site in Andalucia. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a large if shallow lake with Flamingos, Red-crested Pochards, Purple Swamphens and migrant waders. Admittedly, the views were distant and, without a 'scope, it wasn't easy to check the birdlife but I was delighted to find the laguna still existed and that local people were fighting to repair the damage wrought by the extraction of clay.
The view of the laguna from viewpoint (c) in 2011
It was only after several subsequent visits that I fully appreciated just how lucky I'd been in 2011. By then there was a designated mirador over the 'laguna' (Mirador La Mina), a hide with a board walk on the southern perimeter and several noticeboards. However, no sooner had this welcome infrastructure been constructed than a long drought set in. Photos online show it was still occasionally wet (spring 2016 & 2018) but never as full as it was when I first saw it. The photos below, taken in spring 2024, shows just how dry the 'laguna' had become. By then, the signage had become cracked and bleached by the sun, and what remained of the 'laguna' had become the haunt of dog walkers and, to judge from tyre tracks, off-road bikers. Stone-curlews were still present and Collared Pratincoles hawked over what few wet areas remained but it was a sorry sight and a poor reward for those locals who had fought to preserve the laguna.
Arriving back in the area in March 2025 and fully aware of the deluge of rain that had beset Andalucia through the autumn of 2024 and well into 2025, visiting this laguna was a high priority. I wasn't disappointed!
The view from the roundabout at the edge of El Cuervo instantly confirmed that the laguna had reasserted itself. Better still it looked even fuller than it had in 2011. The necklace of tamarisk that surrounded the lake now looked more like a crown.
The view from the roundabout at the edge of El Cuervo instantly confirmed that the laguna had reasserted itself. Better still it looked even fuller than it had in 2011. The necklace of tamarisk that surrounded the lake now looked more like a crown.
Black-necked Grebe I visited the site twice during my stay (on 20/04 see here & on 29/04 with Nick Brown - see here) and each time was a delight even though I missed the pair of Red-knobbed Coots reported earlier this spring. The star bird was undoubtedly Ferruginous Duck which I located from the hide amongst the many Red-crested Pochard (18) and Pochard (2). On my second visit I was pleased to relocate the Ferruginous Duck in the same area but was still more pleased to see a second more distant bird. Also bobbing about on (and under) the water were Great-crested, Little and Black-necked Grebes (6+). Gull-billed Tern, Collared Pratincole and hoards of hirundines hawked above the laguna whilst the muddy margins held 9+ Little Ringed Plover, a few Black-winged Stilts, fewer Avocets and a handful of Common Sandpipers. Fewer than a dozen Flamingos stalked though water between the drowning tamarisks reminding me how shallow this superficially extensive laguna actually was. The scrubby margins of the laguna had Sardinian, Melodious and Reed Warblers plus half-a-dozen Bee-eaters burbling away in the sky above them. I was pleased to later discover that the nearby clay pits hosted a small colony of this gorgeous species.
,Although it was wonderful to see Ferruginous Duck (a scarce and endangered species in Spain), the real star of my visits was the laguna itself. The water was so high that a section of the (new?) boardwalk just below the Mirador la Mina as flooded and impassable. The from the mirador itself had been transformed from somewhat dull one commanding a view over a pasture dotted with puddles of differing sizes, to one showcasing a vista across a laguna roughly a kilometre in diameter. Gratifyingly, the tired noticeboards have been replaced by smart new ones. The hide was now at the end of a pier rather than a causeway over dry land and offered a stupendous view across the water. On the far side of the lake there was a spruce new boardwalk which permitted a better view of the northern shoreline. A section of flooded boardwalk stymied my plans to walk around the whole lake (c6km) so that will have to wait for a future visit. The only cloud hanging over this wonderful experience was how long I may have to wait to see it repeated. the recent drought lasted for four years and even before then the laguna never seems to have regained its full size. This, I'm told, has been compounded by a local landowner who has dammed a small but vital feeder create a small agricultural reservoir. Only time will tell, but if you're visiting this area and other lagunas seem to have a lot of water, I recommend you come here and see for yourself. Like me you might be pleasantly surprised.
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