Marsh Harriers In Lake "Las Cañas"

I travelled out today to do some bird watching as the weather has finally turned summery, I did a search and found a reservoir about 50 miles away near Logroño, that seemed good enough to go and have a walk around, It was easy to find and when I arrived it was completely deserted apart from some silly old farts who were walking the "Camino De Santiago", following in the footsteps of some saint who walked 800 km a long time ago and devout followers of the Catholic doctrine now think they will get to heaven if the put themselves through this purgatory, so I didn't drive over the old farts and parked up and was alone, the reservoir was down the hill in front of the national park building and seemed to have a circular footpath, it didn't actually have one it was my imagination, but there was a small path that led to the fencing around the lake, I found that all i could see from most of the walk was very large trees in front of me and in between was just reeds, I didn't mind this is typical bird watching, you see nothing all day and then you may just find a gem, but today started so differently. I saw 200 sheep that were being used to eat down the grasses around the waters edge, this is very environmentally friendly and also helps the birds, I saw something i never expected, there were Cattle Egrets riding on the sheep, just waiting for flies or other flying insects to come to them and the sheep didn't mind one bit, not just one or two birds but about 40, the egrets were running in front of them and behind them, flying up to get a "Birds eye" view of the area and then landing either on the sheep or in front, it was very amusing and really interesting, the shepherd didn't seem that excited but when you have been moving them around for the last 40 years, the novelty must wear off, I carried on around the lake and saw nothing at all, I then arrived at the concrete retaining wall confirming to me it was all fake, from there i could see some large birds of prey flying around the centre of the water and then landing in the reeds, this is not normal for birds of prey, I realised i had seen my first Marsh Harrier, but there were many of them, flying here and there around the lake, I was excited inside, not jumping for joy but still excited, A park warden arrived and was standing beside me with his big birding scope and I asked him how many of them were at the, in very poor spanish, he told me there were about 10-12 breeding pairs, this is probably more than the whole of england, this was my day made, i bade him adios and started my walk back, again without seeing anything at all, pretty miserable if you had kids to entertain but for me it was enough, but i have since found out from the internet that even closer is a lake of international importance for its Marsh Harrier population, Lake Pitillas and it is close to where I am working, so funny, so that is my trip planned for next weekend.