El Hito Lagoon, Cuenca Live Cam

The camera looks across El Hito Lagoon, a seasonal saline wetland in Spain's Cuenca province where common cranes wade along the muddy shore. Calm water mirrors the sky, and the village of El Hito with its church tower rises beyond the reddish fields.

The lagoon lies on the La Mancha plains between El Hito and Montalbo, and its water level changes with the seasons. It is a nature reserve and a Ramsar wetland of international importance. In autumn and winter it holds the largest common crane roost in the province, with thousands of birds spending the night on the water.

Mounted on the north-eastern shore, the camera moves between preset views. It looks south-west across open water to El Hito, turns north-east to Montalbo on its pine-covered hill and zooms in on cranes and low mud islets. At night the picture switches to black and white.