Ponds and birds of the Lagoa de Antela: the return of the lagoon

The Lagoa de Antela, drained from 1958, once again has places with water: the recovered ponds that the comarca’s website xinzodelimia.eu titles "A volta da lagoa xa é unha realidade" ("the return of the lagoon is already a reality"). This page records the species it shows and, separately, the wetland restoration work of the Antela Section of the SGHN ^[1][2].

The species of the ponds

The website photographs 16 species, with Galician names, at an observatory and at some recovered ponds, some taken from a viewpoint and a leisure area ^[1]. They are given here with the source’s Galician names, untranslated, because the website adds no scientific names:

1. andoriña das barreiras
2. folosa grande
3. mergullón pequeno
4. cegoña branca
5. galiñola negra
6. espadana
7. lavanco
8. pita de auga
9. rá verde
10. garza real
11. mazarico real
12. xunco
13. píldora pequena
14. ambroíño de río
15. bilurico común
16. rá de San Antón

Among the images are a heron at a recovered pond, ducks, the wooded habitat where the birds hide, a stork nest with chicks during a flood of the lagoon and sunsets over Antela ^[1]. The list mixes water birds, shore birds and amphibians.

Two rare birds: the common snipe and the little bustard

The common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) now has only two nesting sites in Spain, one in Ávila and another in the province of Ourense; in A Limia it was far more abundant before the draining of the Lagoa de Antela, and in Galicia a few dozen breeding pairs survive. According to Gciencia, the nesting population is in the Galician Catalogue of Threatened Species, yet the Xunta allows hunting it during migration, with restrictions, in a few concellos in the south of Ourense, and its recovery plan was never developed ^[3]. The little bustard, named Bird of the Year 2017 by SEO/BirdLife, is a small bustard of cereal fields and dry pastures; in Galicia only a few pairs remain in the comarcas of A Limia and A Terra Chá, and in Spain it is listed as "vulnerable" ^[4].

Wetland restoration

The Antela Section of the Sociedade Galega de Historia Natural (SGHN) works on restoring the wetlands of A Limia, work the Museo da Limia recognised with the Pedra Alta Prize (see Pedra Alta Prize). In 2023, for World Wetlands Day and the 50th anniversary of the Grupo Ornitolóxico Galego (SGHN), Sandiás Town Council and the SGHN organised an event ^[2]:

• at 10:00, a visit to the "Humidal Antonio Villarino", owned by the SGHN, and to the Veiga de Gomareite, at the northern end of the former lagoon;
• in the afternoon, a visit to the projects at the sand pits of A Limia;
• at 18:30, a talk by Serafín González, president of the SGHN, on the Limia–Antela wetland complex at the "Casa da Lagoa", in Sandiás.

For the history of the draining and the legends of the lagoon, see Lagoa de Antela and Antioquía and the drowned cities.

Links

• Nature of A Limia
• Lagoa de Antela
• The Limia river
• Sandiás

Sources

1. «Charcas da Lagoa de Antela», xinzodelimia.eu. http://www.xinzodelimia.eu:80/charcas_da_lagoa.htm
2. «É hora de restaurar os humidais: actuacións da SGHN – Sección Antela», Vía Lethes. https://vialethes.es/e-hora-restaurar-humidais-actuacions-sghn-antela
3. Gciencia, «Cerreta: unha ave en perigo que se pode cazar en Galicia». https://www.gciencia.com/medioambiental/cerreta-caza-galicia/
4. Gciencia, «O sisón, case extinguido en Galicia, Ave do Ano 2017». https://www.gciencia.com/medioambiental/o-sison-case-extinguido-en-galicia-ave-do-ano-2017/