Peter Jones, "Hampshire Diary"

• Saturday, September 26, 2009 - Spanish Lynx Weekend

Took advantage of a free Flybe flight and had a very enjoyable long weekend in spain. Took a flight to Malaga then a hire car into Sierra Morena, just North of Andujar. An area that had recently received publicity as one of only two remaining strongholds for Spanish Lynx. Currently the rarest cat in the world, and in danger of extinction. A couple of watchpoints are mentioned, but Spanish Lynx is as elusive as it is rare, and an average of 40 hours per sighting has been quoted! My luck was obviously in, as I saw a beautiful Lynx stealthily creep down a hillside, pause on it's haunches briefly, before disappearing out of sight. A 15 second view, about 5 seconds in the scope and not even a sniff of a photo opportunity, but unforgettable all the same. This was after 8 hours scanning from the Rio Jandular watchpoint and a pre-dawn slow drive through suitable territory. As there isn't much else to do in this part of Spain other than look for Lynx, I spent much of the remainder of the weekend scanning, but was unable to repeat the sighting.. 20 hours searching for 15 seconds of Lynx! The stakeouts were in far from ideal conditions: Rain reduced the chances of a sighting the first afternoon, and the final morning's watch was aborted after 4 hours when a stray dog turned up in the patch. I suspect the scent of the canine would ruin any chance of a Lynx for several days. Not that the Rio watchpoint is only good for Lynx.. Throughout my stay a procession of other Animals came and went, making it a superb place to sit out a weekend.. Wild Boar, Red Deer, and Otter were all seen. Birding highlights included Purple Heron, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Hawfinch, White-Rumped Swift, Red-Rumped Swallow, Woodlark, Little Owl, Sardinian Warbler, Spotless Starling, Azure Winged Magpie and Crested Tit. Pipistrelle bats emreged here very early in the evening, and a Leisler's Bat was picked up on my Bat Detector. The La Lancha area was also good for birdlife with Bee Eaters, Hoopoe, Griffon Vulture, plenty of Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, plus Redstarts, Black Wheatear, and a Nightjar in the headlights at dusk. This area also had good numbers of Mammals with Fallow Deer, Garden Dormouse and Mouflon seen. The latter only picked out pre-dawn when scanning a roadside area of grassland with my maglite. The Bat activity was amazing with the area round the dam in particular holding many Common and Soprano Pipistrelles, plus a brief burst of Kuhl's Pipistrelle. Add to that Greater Mouse Eared Bats, Noctule, Leisler's, Natterer's and Greater Horseshoe Bats. I also picked up a large Bat with very low calls of about 12KHz, and half the repetition speed of a Noctule.. This may have been a European Free-Tailed Bat, but I'm still studying the calls for that one. Couple of photos below of the commoner birds of the area: Azure-Winged Magpie: Sardinian Warbler:

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