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.
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| 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 …
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| Iberian Ibex (hispanica form). |
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| Red Deer. |
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| Mouse-eared Bat. |
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| European Mouflon. |
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| Crag Martin. |
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| Black Vultures. |
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