What you can see on the El Rocío webcam
The live camera is mounted on a rooftop at the edge of the village and looks across a sandy track and a line of trees to the open marsh, flat to the horizon. It shows the marsh through the seasons: dry and golden in summer, a shallow lake after the rains.
El Rocío webcam: the marsh on the edge of Doñana
From a rooftop on the edge of El Rocío, this live camera looks out over the marsh that laps the village, part of the great wetland of Doñana. In the foreground are trees and a sandy track running along the shore, with a white house and its small bell gable on the right; beyond lies the open marsh, flat as a table, to a line of trees on the horizon. The marsh changes completely through the year. In summer and early autumn it is usually dry, a plain of sun-baked mud and grass; after the autumn and winter rains it floods into a shallow lake where flamingos, spoonbills and ducks feed and the water mirrors the sky. Watching it from week to week shows the marsh filling and drying out.
Doñana's marsh from the El Rocío bird centre
SEO/BirdLife, Spain's ornithological society, streams this camera from its Francisco Bernis bird centre, on the edge of El Rocío overlooking the marsh. It looks out across the open marsh with a long lens: in the foreground the flat bed of the marsh, then a fringe of reeds and rushes, and beyond it trees and pasture on the far side.
In summer and early autumn the marsh is often dry and the picture is still; after the winter rains it becomes a shallow lake where flamingos, spoonbills, herons and flocks of ducks feed, and the same view comes alive with birds. It complements the camera over the marsh from the village rooftops, with a closer look at the far shore and its wildlife.
The pilgrimage and the marsh
El Rocío belongs to the town of Almonte, in the province of Huelva, and is built around the shrine of the Virgin of El Rocío. At Pentecost it hosts the Romería del Rocío, the best-known pilgrimage in Spain: brotherhoods from across Andalusia arrive on horseback, on foot and in decorated wagons, and roughly a million people fill a village of under 2,000 inhabitants. The village and its shrine have been a protected historic site since 2006. The marsh in front of it is part of the wider wetlands of Doñana, a World Heritage Site and one of the great bird reserves of Europe, where flamingos, spoonbills, herons and ducks feed in the shallow water.
When to watch El Rocío
El Rocío is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The marsh usually floods with the autumn and winter rains and dries out through late spring and summer, so the view changes from one season to the next; winter and spring are the best months for birds. Summer afternoons are very hot, and in the early morning mist often hangs over the water.
Around El Rocío
The beaches of Matalascañas are 13 miles (20 km) to the south, and the town of Almonte 10 miles (17 km) to the north. Visitor centres on the edge of Doñana, some within easy reach of the village, explain the park and its wildlife.
Visiting El Rocío
Seville airport is about 58 miles (93 km) away by road. Much of Doñana can only be entered with authorised guides, so plan any visit to the park in advance. Over the Pentecost weekend the village is packed and the roads around it are slow.
