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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morg" data-source="post: 1486915" data-attributes="member: 76574">I jammed in on the lynx at dawn in March of this year in Donana. I had booked a birding tour with Jose Sanchez of Discovering Donana (highly recommended) and he had quite rightly let me know in advance that the lynx was not only very unlikely but that as a professional guide in Donana he was not allowed to search for it during the cubbing season and if we saw one we would not be allowed to stop. This seemed pretty reasonable since it is by all accounts the rarest of cat species.As it turned out, we had to drive through a known lynx area to get into the birding sites and since we wanted to be in the field for as long as possible we were passing through this area at first light. The lynx appeared close by on one side of the tack and then sauntered slowly across in front of us which led to a fairly ridiculous situation where the 'no stopping for lynx' rule seemed to break down a little. Presumably when the Donana authorities had decided this rule they hadn't considered that the lynx may be crossing in front of the vehicle concerned! Needless to say at this point our velocity was just about as low as possible... Just to add to the show the lynx then decided to indulge in some hefty territorial scratching on a nearby pine tree before melting away into the vegetation.In case you are feeling a bit gutted - don't worry, my photos are useless - 300mm zoom with no light + adrenaline + diesel engine running saw to that. My mum's snap with her ixus is much crisper!By the way, I spent some time chatting with the Donana staff later in the day and they told me that one of the major threats to the Iberian lynx is photography. Apparently more than one set of cubs have perished due to disturbance by photographers. Just something to bear in mind.Geoff</blockquote>

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