Spanish lynx (1 Viewer)

[BusangaBirder]

Seems like im a little late! but my father who is a wildlife tour operator has a friend Jules Sykes who takes guided trips to the Sierra de Culebra mountains to find Iberian Wolves and Sierra de Andujar for the Lynx (holds apprx 70%) of the population. He is a birder by trade is Jules, so these trips although intent on finding the Lynx and Wolves, etc. have agreat birding emphasis too. Interestingly although very hard to find and see, Jules believes that some 60/70% of the trips do indeed see Lynx. I havn't managed to get out there yet but as a conservationist and keen naturalist i really want to, what a great trip! Let me know how you get on!

this link may be of interest too as it has some nice pics and a good bit of info. http://www.busangasafari.co.uk/categories/out-of-africa/safaris-in-spain.html

 

[Scousemouse]

Hello,as promised, I had a long weekend in sierra Morena, and had a brief view of a Lynx. My blog entry for the trip is at the following link..

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/petermk/12207/Spanish+Lynx+Weekend.html

In addition, I found that the drive from Malaga to Andujar (via Cordoba) was fairly easy, on good dual carriageways, but quite long. Took me something like 3 hours.

Once in Sierra Morena, the roads were pretty poor in places, but easily driveable, at least in an economy hire car in September.

As well as the Los Pinos hotel, there were other restaurants in the area, (and a McDonalds in Andujar!). You need to fill up with petrol in Andujar too.

The Rio Jandula stakeout was were I had my successful sighting, and this was a relaxing place to sit for hours (literally), and over time build up a decent list of wildlife sightings. What I did notice, was that this watchpoint was pretty popular with non-wildlife watching people, especially at the weekend.
Also, although there were many serious looking people searching for Lynx, many of them were sitting in very prominent positions on the road barriers.

I parked my car out of site, and sat tight in front of a bush (i.e. not silhouetted against sky).. It was only when the last car of other watchers left the area that within 5 minutes I got my sighting. It was as if the Lynx had been watching all morning, and waited for the cars, and watchers to go.

The Roads around Los Escoriales and La Lancha were also really popular with weekend tourists. I encountered a few small groups of cars stopped to view something. These all turned out to be watching Fallow Deer. There are a couple of really panoramic viewpoints along the road near La Lancha. I'm sure Lynx have been seen from these, but it is a massive area, and views are likely to be very distant.

I hope to return, but would try and go mid-week, when hopefully it was quieter.

I didn't have any success finding other suitably quiet roads North of the Rio Jandular. East of Los Escoriales, there is a very long track but I didn't have much joy along here late evening. Having two people will greatly improve chances while driving along the tracks.

 

[Mike Richardson]

Hello,as promised, I had a long weekend in sierra Morena, and had a brief view of a Lynx. My blog entry for the trip is at the following link..

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/petermk/12207/Spanish+Lynx+Weekend.html

In addition, I found that the drive from Malaga to Andujar (via Cordoba) was fairly easy, on good dual carriageways, but quite long. Took me something like 3 hours.

Once in Sierra Morena, the roads were pretty poor in places, but easily driveable, at least in an economy hire car in September.

As well as the Los Pinos hotel, there were other restaurants in the area, (and a McDonalds in Andujar!). You need to fill up with petrol in Andujar too.

The Rio Jandula stakeout was were I had my successful sighting, and this was a relaxing place to sit for hours (literally), and over time build up a decent list of wildlife sightings. What I did notice, was that this watchpoint was pretty popular with non-wildlife watching people, especially at the weekend.
Also, although there were many serious looking people searching for Lynx, many of them were sitting in very prominent positions on the road barriers.

I parked my car out of site, and sat tight in front of a bush (i.e. not silhouetted against sky).. It was only when the last car of other watchers left the area that within 5 minutes I got my sighting. It was as if the Lynx had been watching all morning, and waited for the cars, and watchers to go.

The Roads around Los Escoriales and La Lancha were also really popular with weekend tourists. I encountered a few small groups of cars stopped to view something. These all turned out to be watching Fallow Deer. There are a couple of really panoramic viewpoints along the road near La Lancha. I'm sure Lynx have been seen from these, but it is a massive area, and views are likely to be very distant.

I hope to return, but would try and go mid-week, when hopefully it was quieter.

I didn't have any success finding other suitably quiet roads North of the Rio Jandular. East of Los Escoriales, there is a very long track but I didn't have much joy along here late evening. Having two people will greatly improve chances while driving along the tracks.

Thanks for providing some very interesting information – you did especially well with the bats.

Under what circumstances did you see the Garden Dormouse?

And a MacDonald’s in Andujar?! I don’t what I was expecting but it wasn’t American fast food chains! I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised having seen them everywhere else.

 

[Scousemouse]

Thanks Mike,
A shame I didn't get more of a look at the "low frequency" Bat, but the rest of the trip was really successful. The Dormouse was "frozen" in the car headlights well after dark near La Lancha for a couple of seconds.

Never been a fan of McDonalds, but the Andujar branch kept me alive for the weekend!

 

[Steve Babbs]

Thanks Mike,
A shame I didn't get more of a look at the "low frequency" Bat, but the rest of the trip was really successful. The Dormouse was "frozen" in the car headlights well after dark near La Lancha for a couple of seconds.

Never been a fan of McDonalds, but the Andujar branch kept me alive for the weekend!

If there were other restaurants around and Los Pinos has one, why the Mcdonalds?

 

[Scousemouse]

I adjusted my eating times to maximise time in the field at dawn and dusk. (MacDonalds was open all day, so it was convenient to pop in early afternoon).
There was also a supermarket near Mac's, where I could stock up on ingredients for alfresco stuff, fruit and breakfasts!

Plus I don't speak Spanish, ordering from a menu in a restaurant would be a nightmare.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Tip for next time El menu del dia - dish of the day. usually at leat two courses, bread and often wine as well. Usually good/excellent value and certainly better than McDonalds. You probably realised this, but Spanish restaurants usually stay open very late, ideal for dusk watching and allowing time for a bit of spot lighting as well. Most people wouldn't dream of eating before 9 in Spain.

 

[Scousemouse]

Thanks Steve,
Although a midnight 2 course meal followed by bed is not something my body would appreciate. You are right.. probably better than McDonalds though LOL

 

[Matt Prince]

Hello, thinking of trying the Andujar site this Spring with my wife.

(Thanks for starting the thread, Steve, and for all the info posted so far, everyone)

Is everyone going for long weekends? I can see the advantage (for us that have to earn our crust) but was thinking of perhaps spending a working week, after Peters comment about disturbance on the weekend.

Could I hack a week looking for the cat?

Get up. Look for Cat. Eat. Siesta. Look for Cat. Eat. Drink Rioja. Sleep.
Repeat.

:t:

 

[Scousemouse]

Hello Matt,
I suspect it would be difficult to find enough data to back up my theory of a better chance midweek. In fact, my sighting was on the Saturday morning! but I felt I was extremely lucky in the circumstances that the watchpoint cleared of people for a spell mid morning. The period that really was busy was the Sunday afternoon. Families were parked all along the La Lancha road having picnics and cracking open bottles of wine.
On the sunday afternoon, I felt I was wasting my time looking for Lynx, unless I got a very distant sighting, like on a distant mountain through the scope.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Hello, thinking of trying the Andujar site this Spring with my wife.

(Thanks for starting the thread, Steve, and for all the info posted so far, everyone)

Is everyone going for long weekends? I can see the advantage (for us that have to earn our crust) but was thinking of perhaps spending a working week, after Peters comment about disturbance on the weekend.

Could I hack a week looking for the cat?

Get up. Look for Cat. Eat. Siesta. Look for Cat. Eat. Drink Rioja. Sleep.
Repeat.

:t:

Mid week is unlikely to be worse. Whether you can cope with a whole week is a different question. There's other stuff there and if you haven't been to Spain before it'd probably be great but if your an old hand at birding Spain I think, personally, I'd find it a bit much get up for first light every morning looking for the same thing. Of course you may get crippling views on the first day and then you might wish to have the flexibility to move on somewhere else for a few days.

 

[Matt Prince]

"Of course you may get crippling views on the first day"

That would be rather pleasant.. but I suspect there is a very real chance of spending the whole week without a glimpse of the cat.

Fortunately I've only ever been to the Catalonia bit of Spain, so I suspect there would be plenty of distractions to give Felix a chance of slipping by unnoticed

Did a quick internet sweep of the accomodation in the area last night, Los Pinos certainly looks like the best bet - are there no weekly rentals in this bit of spain? Seems odd!

Peter - Is it easy to sneak out of the hotel in the early hours without causing undue disturbance to the other residents?

 

[Scousemouse]

Hello Matt,
Not something I have ever considered prior to a trip.. you sound like a very considerate person!

The accommodation I was in was a room in a small block of about 4 rooms.(2 rooms sharing a bathroom in the small corridor). I'm pretty sure all of the accomodation was in this format, with about 6 accommodation blocks. There were no issues with coming and going at any time night or day.

However, I did park my car outside the accomodation area, in the restaurant car park, for much of the time as there was a gate into the accomodation blocks which would scupper any early starts if it got locked overnight.
A car driving through the accomodation area would likely wake a few people.

One other tip, that I found really useful.. the ground is pretty rocky, and numbing if you are staking out for several hours, so take something comfortable to sit on. If you take an old pillow case, and use hotel pillows inside the case, that will be really comfortable and minimise your luggage too. Despite having cushioning, I was starting to get pretty "saddle sore" after 3 days.

 

[Matt Prince]

Thanks Peter. Just wondered if there would be any problems leaving at stupid-o-clock in the morning, such as the gate you mentioned. Sounds like the hotel is a good fit for the purpose at hand.

Now all I need to do is decide when and put it together, chuffed to find my local airport (Exeter) flies direct to Malaga. Result!

Steve? Are you braving Easter Weekend?

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

This book is discounted and may be of interest to followers of this thread.

http://www.nhbs.com/title.php?tefno=158002?ad_id=736

Cheers.

 

[Julian Sykes Wildlife]

Hi All
Good time for seeing Iberian Lynx at the moment with sightings all this week in Andujar, including an astonishing experience as one animal crossed right in front of the car. Unfortunately my camera's been playing up or I would have probably got better shots than the one posted. This is one fabulous place with Spanish Imperial & Golden Eagles, Goshawk, Otter, Red & Fallow Deer, Moufflon plus much more as back-up. Came back today from Malaga with a small group and en-route saw a Black shouldered Kite and I was told about a Wallcreeper being seen in the natural park!!!.
Anyway if you get out here - good hunting and nice to see lots of good advice being posted.
I have a couple of trip reports from here on the website if anyone's interested.
All the best Jules

 

[Isurus]

What a shot!!

 

[Farnboro John]

Steve? Are you braving Easter Weekend?

I am going with Steve but not over the Easter weekend.

John

 

[Matt Prince]

" Unfortunately my camera's been playing up or I would have probably got better shots "

You're kidding right? Better than the shot you posted !?! Fantastic picture.

I was wondering about the timing of my own trip, think I need to make it early as possible, work commitments allowing...

Steve/John - good! Thought Steve's teaching commitments might have limited him to the easter weekend - when presumably the place gets really busy. Having said that, I understand the Spanish are into the 'proper' meaning of easter, so it might not be as bad as I'm projecting.

 

[Steve Babbs]

" Unfortunately my camera's been playing up or I would have probably got better shots "

You're kidding right? Better than the shot you posted !?! Fantastic picture.

I was wondering about the timing of my own trip, think I need to make it early as possible, work commitments allowing...

Steve/John - good! Thought Steve's teaching commitments might have limited him to the easter weekend - when presumably the place gets really busy. Having said that, I understand the Spanish are into the 'proper' meaning of easter, so it might not be as bad as I'm projecting.

The proper meaning of Easter? You mean birding/mammal trips

Luckily I have almost two weeks after the end of the Easter weekend. Moving from working in ornithology to teaching has considerably improved my chances to watch wildlife. In fact for the 'world birder' it's a great job.

If we get views like Jules got I'll be walking round like a Chesire cat for a week or two. Was the picture taken using digiscoping Jules?