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Hides Calera, Toledo, Spain May 2025 12 to 18 May By Stephen Burch, England Introduction Having spent a fair amount of time over the last few years in photo hides within reasonably easy reach of home, it seemed timely to consider something further afield, given something of an improvement in my problematic back. From looking at other photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube it was clear that photo hides are not confined to the UK, and can be found in several other European countries. The Spanish hides were of particular interest as are mainly geared to raptors, which are of special appeal to me. Having been unsuccessful in previous attempts to see and photograph adult Goshawk in South Wales, this was a high priority for me. Watching a YouTube video in late 2024 about Spanish hides with Iberian Lynx and Goshawk caught my attention. I contacted the YouTuber concerned only to be told that he wasn't prepared to divulge the name of the hides or any contact details as he wanted to run presumably lucrative photo workshops to these "secret" hides! No matter, a few minutes of Googling later, I found out that he must have been at Hides Calera in the Toledo region of Spain. Contact with the owner of these hides, Jose David Gomez, soon showed that independent visits to these hides were perfectly possible, and by cutting out the middle man, no doubt considerably more cost effective and more flexible on dates. However these hides get booked up well in advance, and he had no availability until May, by which time both the Goshawk and Lynx hides were off season. No matter though as he has plenty of other hides with different birds (and the odd mammal). The hides have a wide range of species from raptors to smaller birds such as the colourful Bee Eater and Hoopoe, both of which I was keen to get better photos of. Some of the hides were for single species while others had a range (mainly the raptor hides). So after some discussion to and fro (Jose is very busy so it can take him a week or so to reply), I settled on a provisional schedule of hides over 5 full days, started on 13 May. General Arrival at Madrid is to the new terminal 4S, which requires a train ride to the main terminal 4, for baggage collection, immigration etc. I was relieved to find no queue for passport control - maybe another benefit of being at the front of the aircraft? Note that on my return journey, it was also necessary, having checked-in, to get the train again along to terminal 4S for facilities and boarding. I wasn't impressed that the aircraft was stuck out on the tarmac, requiring a coach trip to get to (with associated climbing of steps etc). Also there was a considerable delay having boarded the bus while the ground staff struggled to close the departure gate without being able to make contact with anyone else, it seemed! Teething troubles of the new construction? Transport from
Madrid airport Hotel La Hacienda Del Casar It was however the hotel's restaurant for lunch/dinner that was less satisfactory with a very limited variety (mostly under-cooked chicken fillets!). Usually I was the only person there. On my fourth night it was closed due to a local fiesta, so Jose showed me to Restaurante San Cristóbal which was better and by a petrol station about a 10min walk away. From then on, I tended to patronise this restaurant instead of the hotel. As there were early starts (typically 07:00 pickup) every day, the hotel wasn't open for breakfast at that time, but there were a couple of simple places just up the road that opened early enough (somewhat variable but shortly after 06:00). Bird site local to the hotel Hides Calera - general arrangements etc The hides themselves were generally simple and compact. They nearly all featured one-way glass windows with a black net curtain between the window and the photographer. I took my own light-weight gimbal, to which I attached a mini-tripod provided by Hides Calera so it sat on the shelf provided. Floor standing tripods are not recommended. On occasion, for action shots, I preferred to hand hold the camera & lens although this was a little difficult with the black curtain. You are forbidden to leave the hides during the session; indeed in most I was locked in - and only released when Jose or his son (also Jose!) came to collect me. Hides were either 1 or 2 person but I never had to share with anyone, perhaps because it was low season. Basic facilities are available in the form of a bottle and a (lined) bucket with lid in case of emergencies. The hide glass was said to cause a loss of light of only 0.7 stops, but I often found myself using high ISOs for action shots, despite the frequently bright sunny conditions. So I wondered if some were blocking out more light than this. However, I can't say I could detect any major loss of image sharpness caused by the glass. I think in the spring, April is their peak month and by early May it is low season before they close mid month until later in the summer, by which time it must be very hot! When I was there there was nobody else spending as long as 5 nights, and generally there were a few photographers coming and going all the time, with only one or two staying at the same hotel. There were two sessions a day. One fairly early morning (about 07:00 pickup from the hotel) until late morning/midday (11:30-12:00). The afternoon/evening sessions started with pickup around 16:00 - 16:30 and ended around 20:00-20:30. Hence there was time in the middle of the day for lunch, relaxation, file backups and battery charging. Doing the same thing in the evening was a bit rushed before needing to get to bed reasonably early. All in all, it was quite a hectic schedule but doable for someone who is the wrong side of 70. I think I was lucky with the timing of my visit as the weather had been cool and exceptionally wet prior to my arrival. This had significantly delayed the breeding of some of the birds. The Hoopoe were still busily feeding young on the nest, and the Bee Eaters were at the mating/courtship stage of their breeding cycle. I suspect normally things would be much more advanced by early/mid May and the Hoopoe for example likely to have departed. Weather Insects Photos Hides Click to enlarge any of the photos below. There is a also a separate galley with additional photos. Valley Hide The star performers here are vultures - mainly Griffon but also a few Black. There were also some foxes around, and masses of Black Kite. Jose also said there were often Spanish Imperial Eagles in the distance, which few people saw as they were concentrating on the nearer stuff. Forewarned, I picked up the eagle and got some distant but atmospheric shots of it against the mountain backdrop - see below. All the birds come in very quickly to the large amount of meat offered to them at the start of the session, producing a frenzy of activity. Unfortunately the food disappeared very quickly and the vultures and other raptors then drifted off leaving a rather uneventful remainder to the session.
Bee Eater Hide This hide was a complete contrast to the Valley Hide of my first morning, being located in a grassy field in the middle of breeding colony of Bee Eaters. The hides here were particularly compact and the perches were quite low down with the long grass coming in front of the birds on some of the perches. This wasn't ideal at all in my view and for the second visit a fair amount of trimming was done before we were installed in the hides. A bonus was that, due to weather-delayed season, there was plenty of courtship behaviour, with frequent food passes and mating The high level of activity on the first afternoon meant that I spent a lot of time trying for flight shots using the wonderful pre-capture option on my R5 Mk II. For the second visit I had the x1.4TC on the whole time and concentrated more on perched shots, especially when the birds were backwards on.
Hoopoe Hide There was another perch placed further from the nest in a much better location photographically. But neither of the birds ever landed on it, although apparently it had been used regularly only a few days earlier. At least the visits were frequent right through the morning, although the interval increased somewhat as time wore on. With only one real perched shot available, I spent most of time trying for incoming or outgoing flight shots which weren't easy!
Iberian Grey Shrike Hide Once again I used the R5 II's pre-capture a fair amount in order to try to get some flight shots.
Spanish Imperial Eagle Hide This hide offers the opportunity to photograph mature adult Spanish Imperial Eagles, which are rare and have a very limited range only in Spain. At this time of year, the female is on the nest and only the male comes in. It appears to be a somewhat timid individual and only stayed briefly before being chased off by the much smaller Buzzard! Apparently outside of the breeding season, both birds come in and are more confident and stay longer. For my session, the male perched in a pine some distance away and came closer just once in flight. Other birds here included numerous Black Kites, Buzzard and the odd Azure-winged Magpie. There were also very brief visits from Egyptian Mongoose, which made for challenging photography.
Steppe Raptor Hide There were good opportunities for photos of the birds both on the ground and in flight. The Bee Eater perched on the hide roof and then did a sortie from there, which allowed me to get a nice, head-on incoming shot with the bird remarkably close! Somewhat unusually there were good levels of activity through most of the morning, so I ended up with a very large number of shots for that session (>7000), which was by far my most productive session of this trip, allowing a range of settled and flight shots.
Lake Hide
Azure-winged Magpie Hide The other issue here was the extremely bright background, lit by full sun, with most of the perches in deep shape - not a great combination in my view. However, as the session wore on, some of the perches also came into full sun, making things easier. These birds were also amazingly fast and difficult to get onto. Once again I had some success with pre-capture for departing flight shots.
Summary Hides Calera provided a hassle-free way of getting close up with a range of species that are seldom/never available in the UK. The wide range of hides were mostly well sited from the photographic perspective, with the sun behind the hides for most of the morning or afternoon sessions. The hides varied in their productivity but that it was to be expected. The sessions in the raptor hides (Valley, Spanish Imperial Eagle and Steppe) were the highlights of the trip. Over all sessions, I took a huge number of photos (>40,000) and my newly acquired light weight laptop and 4 Tb external SSD drive for backup worked very well with high transfer speeds of about 500 Mb/s for the 4000-7000+ images from each session. In fact my older 4 Tb HDD for a second backup was the limiting factor, taking almost five times for file transfers as long as the SSD. © All pictures copyright Stephen Burch |
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