While everyday of my short trip to the beautiful Sierra Morena region of Andalucia has been cracking, the final day was probably my favourite.
Most of the day was spent in a dedicated vulture hide, with Egyptian Vultures as my main target species. These have been a bit of a bogie bird for me; we've seen quite a number at distance over the course of our trips to Spain in the last few year, but I've only really got decent shots of a juvenile to date. So I was really looking forward to getting a few at close range - and the hide certainly didn't disappoint!
The first Egyptian arrived before it was properly light, and we had around 30 fairly constantly around the hide throughout the session. Needless to say, my shutter count went up quite considerably over the course of the day!
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| Juvenile Egyptian Vulture |
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| Egyptian Vulture |
Also present were about 50 Griffon Vultures. About a dozen came down to feed during our session, with the majority staying more distant over the hills in the background. There were almost innumerable Black Kites, weaving around gracefully to snatch a morsel here and there. I was particularly interested to spot one individual, who appeared to have no red pigmentation, giving it a unique white-headed appearance.
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| Griffon Vulture |
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| Black Kite - White headed |
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| Black Kite - White headed |
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| Black Kite |
Also a large number of White Storks were present around the area, with a pair making their nest directly in-front of the hide. A few also came down to feed during the morning. We were told that some days there can be a hundred or so at the feed and I was fairly pleased this was not one of those days!!
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| White Stork feeding her chicks |
Another real high point for me was getting some really close views of Black Vultures or as they are also known as, Cinereous Vulture- a truly huge and impressive bird; they make the Griffons look positively runtish! Again, this is a species that we have had some distant views of in the past, but I've been itching for a chance to get them lined up in my lens at close quarters! We had half a dozen visit the bait during our session, so I had plenty of opportunity to fulfill this dream. They are much more bicker-some than the Griffons, which appear positively demure in comparison. It's really quite something to see two of these enormous birds squaring up for a dispute!
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| Cinereous Vultures fighting |
I also enjoyed watching how they scuttle about at high speed on the ground, with their wings held out & down behind them, rather like the Skeksis from Jim Henson's film The Dark Crystal (if you are old enough to remember that one!).
As if the trip hadn't already delivered more than I'd hoped for, we were unexpectedly invited to watch a Iberian Lynx reintroduction at a secret release site, at very short notice. Naturally, it was drop everything and go, as opportunities to witness these stunning cats at close quarters really don't come along everyday. We were privileged to get a wonderful view of the young adult female Iberian Lynx as it made it's way past us to cover - at speed! I was then sent round to see if it was still lurking in the bushes, and was amazed to come pretty much face to face with it, taking a brief rest in the scrub. I was so stunned to be locking eyes with one of these rare and elusive beasties that I didn't even get my lens up until it moved off, but sometimes the moment is more important than the photo! Yes, even to me!
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| Iberian Lynx - (GPS collar cloned out) |
An absolutely unforgettable end to a wonderful trip... already making plans for next Spring (although I'm sure I'll be back again in the meantime!).
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