Iberian Lynx

I was up and ready for my taxi pickup at 4.50am this morning, and got to Heathrow without any problems. For once my BA flight was on time and we actually landed in Malaga ahead of schedule!

At Malaga airport I was met by the couple from my camera club who are running this trip, and we were joined by two other people who had also booked on it. It took about 2.5 hours to drive north west to the Parque Natural de la Sierra Andújar where we are staying. Just before we reached our accommodation we stopped off at Carrefour to get food for the next couple of days as the accommodation is self catering.

We are staying in an old farmhouse that has two large hides looking onto the reserve. It is owned by a wildlife vet who was involved in the project to get the Iberian Lynx off the endangered wildlife list through conservation methods, and it has been very successful as they are now classified as vulnerable. The farmhouse is quite simple but it will be fine for a few days.

We were taken to the hide by the manager who runs this lodge. Once you are in the hide it is a 4 hour session and you cannot leave. You have to sit quietly, without talking or making any noise. We waited very patiently for a lynx to show up, as there are so few on the reserve it is not guaranteed they will be seen, as these animals are not baited. However there is a good population of rabbits for them to hunt so they are habituated in this area. Eventually just after sunset one lynx showed up, followed soon by another. They sat in front of the hide for a very short while and then went off again. We were so very lucky to see them on our very first night here, despite the light being low so conditions were not perfect.

Then we walked back to the house where we had supper. I quickly edited a few photos to be able to post to blip. It will be very difficult to keep up with blip while here as we have no time to ourselves and we are busy all the time.

Tomorrow it's a fairly early start as we are going out into the reserve by Jeep, not sure what we will see but hopefully some birds.