Lammas Lands 90

I've done little local birding this month, but last week a gloomy, mizzly stroll around Overgone Meadow produced a Dartford Warbler. This encounter meant it was the fourth winter out of the past five that I've recorded Dartford Warbler at the Lammas Lands – and also marked the 90th species for me at the site in 2024, my best-ever total.

Overgone Meadow on a warmer, sunnier day in September.

I've not tried any harder than usual to reach that figure, but I noticed on eBird a few weeks ago that I was having a decent year in species number terms at the Lammas Lands. It was nice to set a new personal record of 88 on 15 November when I had a Water Rail on Catteshall Meadow (not common here and, funnily enough, I had another last week on Overgone).

Probably my best bird of the year here was number 89 – a Great Egret lumbering low west over Catteshall Meadow on 29 November. This was a site first, one of two in 2024, the other being Lesser Whitethroat on 2 August. Little Grebe, Garden Warbler and Green Sandpiper have all been Lammas Lands lifers for me this year as well.

Great Egret over Catteshall Meadow.

The Lammas Lands is a cool site and one I've got progressively more into post-COVID, when lockdown showed me that this underwatched site was sitting in the middle of Godalming – and right in front of me. It's small, and parts of both core meadows (Catteshall and Overgone) can become busy on summer afternoons and evenings, but it's easy to work and offers a biodiverse wetland experience somewhat lacking elsewhere in south-west Surrey.

It boasts a smart breeding assemblage of birds and, as confirmed this year, Harvest Mouse – a threatened and rather iconic small mammal. Indeed, unearthing a used nest on Catteshall Meadow this autumn felt almost as good as finding a rare bird. In the spring, I helped Neil lead a walk of the site for the town's councillors – and early plans are afoot to try and obtain Local Nature Reserve status.

Harvest Mouse nest.

Missing lynx

I recently spent a long weekend in northern Andalucia, in Sierra de Andujar. This beautiful region is famous for its Iberian Lynx population – it is the best place in the world to see this localised and threatened big cat. After dipping the feline during a brief, bird-focused visit in 2016, I had vowed to come back and try again one day.

One of the vistas from the La Lancha track.

Unfortunately, and immensely frustratingly, we had no luck. This was despite a huge amount of effort put in, including a whopping 26 hours spent just at the renowned La Lancha viewpoints. Most people who visit for a targeted lynx trip score, so we felt a little hard done by, especially when we missed a female, 'Margaza', by a couple of seconds, a near encounter that goes down as genuinely one of the most galling wildlife moments I've endured!

Despite this, the weather, scenery, company and supporting cast of wildlife was lovely. The focus was on mammals – we scored our three sub-targets of Granada Hare, Iberian Ibex and European Mouflon – but saw some cool birds, including good and regular views of Spanish Eagle, Black Vulture and Iberian Magpie. As I said in 2016, I'll be back …

Iberian Ibex (hispanica form).

Red Deer.

Mouse-eared Bat.

European Mouflon.

Crag Martin.

Black Vultures.