4th-6th of February – return to South Spain, Andújar and Adamuz

Coming home from my last trip to Malaga and the not-so-successful hunt for the Iberian lynx I had made up my mind that I would return some day and try another more focused photo tour trying to increase my odds to see the elusive cat. And apparently it didn’t take more than a few weeks to make up my mind, and on the 4^th of February, less than two months after the last trip I boarded a plane and flew back down to Malaga.

I spent a night in Malaga before getting picked up the following morning by my guide and we drove off to Andújar, the same place we used as a base last time. Arriving around noon we grabbed lunch and drove out like we did last and had a wander, trying to find the lynx in the usual hotspots as last. To the surprise of no one we didn’t see a single lynx during that afternoon.

Early next morning we drove west to Adamuz, close to Cordoba. Here I had a spot in a hide just outside of town for the entire day. We (my guide and I) got picked up by the hide’s owner in town who drove us the 10 minutes out to the hide. The hide was big enough for two people to sit comfortable with a toilet in a back room and another larger room with cots – though that room didn’t seem to be used very much.

 

Red robin. 

The hide had one-way glass to the forested area outside where we would be looking for interesting wildlife (as in lynx). The hide was at ground level but a few meters from the hide there was a raised platform with the same height as the window. The owner spread bird seed out around and left us to ourselves. 

 Eurasien blackcap.

Throughout the day we were visited by numerous birds being lured to the hide by the seeds, and with the elevated platform you got them close with them seeing you so you got to experience them undisturbed. And while many birds were ones you’d see anywhere else – or variants of them – it was nice being able to see them as close as we did.

 European greenfinch.

Around noon the owner came by with lunch packs, spread out more seeds and my guide joined him back to town, leaving me for the afternoon. That was probably the wildest action going on throughout the day, so needless to say there were no trace of lynx.

House sparrows.