Hey folks, we're back from six days in southern Spain. I must say a huge THANK YOU to Shane, for persuading his neighbour to let us leave our car on her drive so we could get to Gatwick airport easily on Saturday morning, and then for jumpstarting the car when we got back this afternoon and found it had a flat battery. It turned out that some idiot (me) had left the passenger-side reading light on for a week - D'OH!
Our holiday was mostly spent exploring the Sierra de Andujar natural park, near Cordoba. We went primarily to look for Iberian Lynx, the world's most endangered feline. There are about 200 of them in Andalucia and another 50 or so in Donana, and that's it, though these numbers represent a considerable improvement from 10 years ago.
We arrived at what we were assured was the best spot, among the hills at La Lancha, on Monday morning and began to scan the slopes. From the elevated road you can see miles and miles across a wide, complex valley, full of smaller hills and valleys, and scattered with lynx-coloured bushes and lynx-like speckled rocks. I took a break from scanning the vista and saw this beauty coolly and silently making her way across the road, just five metres away from me. I was so astounded that I almost forgot to take any photos before it was too late.
She slipped through the fence and slipped away among the bushes on the hillside. A few minutes later Mr aiki spotted a second lynx, this time a half-grown cub, on the slopes close to where the first one had vanished.
We were the only people to see these two lynxes - there had been a Spanish man there but he'd gone off walking down the road. When he got back he found a third lynx, this one much more distant. I couldn't get onto it and only got a glimpse of its bobtail before it vanished behind the rocks, but Mr aiki did a bit better.
After three lynxes in quick succession, we were thinking this was easy. As it turned out, we saw no more for the rest of the week, although to be fair we didn't try as hard as we might have done, but spent some time looking at birds instead :) Spain is rather quiet for birdlife in winter but we found a few goodies. Some of the following are very much record shots!
Griffon Vultures - lots of these.
Black Vulture - these too are quite common.
Other raptors we saw included Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier, Spanish Imperial Eagle and this very distant subadult Bonelli's Eagle.
Azure-winged Magpie. Very common, absolutely beautiful, and complete gits to photograph!
Hoopoe - just for Becca :) Common and easy to see, but (like most of the birds we encountered in fact) flighty and unapproachable.
Southern Grey Shrike. We saw a few of these, and were lucky enough to hear one singing - it had a remarkable repertoire :)
Crag Martin. These non-migrating hirundines came over La Lancha in little flurries at about 4pm both days we were there in the afternoon.
Sardinian Warbler is pretty common - this is a female.
Woodlark - one of a sizeable flock we met when we decided to venture down the roughest of rough tracks through gorgeous countryside.
A Hawfinch up a tree. Not a great view but better than most of the ones I've had in the UK!
Long-tailed Tit - in southern Spain the subspecies present is the dark ibericus.
A Robin. Just like the Robins back home, it was a right poser :)
We saw some nice mammals besides the lynxes. These crazy characters are Mouflon, a species of wild sheep.
Red Deer are very common in the park and surrounding countryside.
Our hosts at the Villa Matilde guesthouse had a few animals around the place too - about 12 gorgeous cats, and two sweet female dogs who we nicknamed Bigdog and Littledog. Here is Bigdog...
... and here's Littledog :)
I'll end this epic post with a couple of landscapes and a sunsetty sky :)
My blog: http://mazzaswildside.blogspot.co.uk/
My Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124028194@N04/
Aiki, You lucky, lucky ..... I like extramedura but next time have been considering going further south to Andujar (or maybe both).
And I do agree about how difficult it is to photograph Azure Winged Magpie. I spent one afternoon hidden in the car throwing fruit on the ground of the Casa's orchard before I got any photos and none as good as yours.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page
That was like sitting through a nature program on the telly :-)
Thank you Aiki
A very old Shropshire Lad.
Great report and photographs, the lynx is so beautiful as are the landscapes and sunset.
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" - Wlliam Blake
What a stunning week you must have had, what a 'honor' to see lynx quietly padding about.
Looks like decent weather as well. That magpie looks beautiful.
Caroline in Jersey
Cin J
Thanks everyone :) I'll never forget that moment with the lynx. Most other times we were at that spot it was pretty busy with people but then it was just Mr aiki and me (and he was looking the wrong way - luckily I managed to get his attention in time!).
Bob, if you'd like any ideas about where to go/stay for a lynx-trip give me a shout. While you can't ever be certain of a sighting, pretty much everyone who stays for a few days does seem to manage at least one.
WOW, aiki, you lucky lucky girl. I've been to Donana three times now and although we saw tracks of the lynx we never saw it. What a fabulous looking creature the Lynx is. I didn't know about the Sierra de Andujar natural park. It looks a wonderful place.
The other photos may be record shots of the birds for you but to me they look very good indeed. I love southern Spain and I hope I can get back there some day. Thanks for sharing your trip.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Aiki, I don't post much these days but I just couldn't let your brilliant report and photographs pass by without commenting how much I have enjoyed reading and viewing the above. Thank you so much.
Brilliant report
& beautiful photo's
Thanks Aiki
Aiki....A HOOPOE?!!!!
This is NOT fair! But no, really, thank you! :-) I will see one....One day!!
These are brilliant photos, I'm so glad you got to see the Lynx, and not just one, but 3!
I like BigDog best, but I'm sure LittleDog was lovely too :-)
I'm pleased you enjoyed your trip...Shame about the car on returning LOL, oh dear!
Becca :-)
Thanks, again, everyone :) (and sorry about the Hoopoe, Becca!) Here's a few more photos.
Dartford Warbler. Kept seeing these whizzing about between the bushes, but only this one had the decency to sit in full view (but not for long, and not in good light!)
Crested Lark. Lots of these in the flatter and grassier areas.
We spent a lovely, although lynx-less, afternoon on the shore of the river Jandula, where we saw a few Kingfishers.
There were lots of Chiffchaffs here, flitting between the rocks in the river and snapping up insects (we could actually hear their bills click).
I had fun trying to photograph them in flight. Here's one of the more successful efforts (still blurry though).
Boyfriends, eh? You turn your back for one moment and they're off photographing juvenile Night Herons and not telling you about it until you get home. (I did see a Night Heron too, but didn't manage any pics).
My favourite bird - a lovely Black Redstart. Lots of these in the rocky areas, though they didn't seem to be hanging around the villages as much as they do in France.
One more pic of the lynx cub disappearing into the scrub - as you can see, this one was a boy :)