Iberian Lynx (C. Maughan Jan. 2012)

Dear Friends

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you have a fabulous 2013.

As you may or may not know I have been very lucky to have visited the Sierra de Andujar, home of the world's rarest cat - Iberian Lynx and having seen this iconic and beautiful mammal I would like to contribute to its continued revival throughout Iberia. 'Life Lince' is the organisation, which has been at the forefront of this and information on their activities can be found here.

during 2013 I am doing an 'Annual Birdrace' within Spain. This essentially is trying to see as many species as possible throughout the year in this country. Do to my other work commitments sadly I won't be in Spain for the whole 365 days but with my schedule of holidays and short breaks I will be visiting many different regions and habitats, and my target is to see in excess of 300 species.

If you would like to sponsor me either per species or a one-off donation please send me a message here or through the website. I am sponsoring myself for 1 euro/species and have already had some incredible pledges with 100 euros from two of my friends - Chris Laurie & Julie Eccles, plus and incredible 500 euros from Andy Carroll of ACE Surveyors.   These are exceptional and any contributions you pledge are all very generous and most welcome - THANK YOU...

I have a 'pot pig bank', which I have been saving my spare coins in until now as its full and ready for emptying. Over the next couple of weeks I counting the contents and announcing the amount on Sunday 13th January.

This is also when I will be hosting a quiz and raffle at my local bar and all proceeds from this event will be added to the amount in the pig bank and sent to Life Lince.

If you're in Oliva please feel free to come and join in - Bar Amigos in San Roc Square from 8pm.

If anyone would like to guess the amount, the nearest will get £50 off their next holiday booked through Julian Sykes Wildlife. To do this is totally free just e-mail or text me a figure - SIMPLES!

Another superb year comes to a close!



It has been a couple of months since I updated this blog and I apologise and here's an idea of what's been going on since mid-September.

For just short of two weeks in late September I was guiding in British Columbia, which (as always) was incredible despite an unfortunate injury to a lady on the trip. This did allow your's truly a ride in a Canadian Airforce Helicopter and thankfully the lady is slowly making a full recovery. The wildlife was also awesome with multiple sightings of Grizzly & Black Bears, Orcas, Gray & Humpback Whales, Sea & River Otters, North American Beaver, Dall's Porpoise, California and Stellar's Sea-lions plus an incredible pod of 200+ Pacific White-sided Dolphins around the boat.

 

October was dominated first by 2 Iberian Lynx trips, one of which was combined with an extension to Tarifa, which was brilliant apart from the Lynx not being too cooperative. Despite this setback we did get fabulous views of many other mammal species such as Mouflon, Wild Boar, Spanish Ibex, 7 species of bat, Long-finned Pilot Whale, Bottle-nose Dolphins plus loads of great birds and still some good migration.



At the end of October I enjoyed another Valencia Short Break with a lady, which is always a great pleasure as I like to catch up with things locally. As always it through one or two surprise species along with the usual suspects. Very much looking forward to my next one in May 2013.

November involved an excellent 'tailor-made' trip around Northern Spain visiting the Blancas steppes and Gallocanta Lake for Dupont's Lark, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Hen Harriers and 15,000 Common Cranes.

Next we moved to the Belchite steppes for more sandgrouse with views of Pin-tailed and Black-bellied together plus lots more larks and raptors.

Then it was up to the pre-Pyrenees for a few nights where in one day we got all our main targets - Wallcreeper, Black Woodpecker, Alpine Accentor and Lammergeier - our American friend was over the moon.

Finally we headed for the Catalunyan coast and the wonderful Ebro Delta with 1000's of waterbirds followed by finishing just south of Valencia at the ricefields of the Albufera. Bob's last 'life bird' was a lone Red-knobbed Coot amongst lots of it's commoner cousins completing a fabulous 8 night holiday.



Here's a message I received from Anthea and Bob -

"When we decided to visit the Spanish Pyrenees, we asked Julian Sykes to put together a tailor-made trip for us - best choice we ever made! He prepared an amazing itinerary that included the Blancas steppes for the Dupont's Lark; Laguna di Gallocanta for the incredible sight of many thousands of Common Cranes coming in to roost; the Belchite Plains for sandgrouse; the spectacularly beautiful Pre-Pyrenees for Lammergeier, Wallcreeper, Black Woodpecker and many other great birds - and finally the fantastic wetlands of the Ebro Delta, which offers Moustached Warbler, Penduline Tit and Bluethroat amongst its many delights. Julian worked so tirelessly to find us the birds, that we came away with every target species we had asked him to find - and several bonus birds too!

“The hotels were well-located and extremely comfortable, and the food (breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals) was uniformly of a very high standard.
“We cannot recommend these tailor-made tours, and Jules' skill and expertise, highly enough. Thank you again,
Julian Sykes Wildlife Holidays - we will be back!"
Bob Dewire, Connecticut, USA - Anthea Skiffington, Canterbury, UK

So my last trip of 2012 was 'Iberian Lynx in Andalucia' and was the best yet! Ironically it involved two ladies who had miised Lynx on a previous visit but this was so much better. In all we had 8 sightings of )at least) 6 different Iberian Lynx including three together plus views of an Otter, Spanish Ibex, Mouflon, Wild Boar, Red Fox and 5 species of bat, including lots of Schreiber's Bats.



It was an incredible end to an incredible year - thank you all so much for joining me and hopefully see you again next year

Julian and Jane




 





A Windy Week

I love watching raptors and last week's holiday to the southern-most tip of Spain certainly fed my habit! The ladies and I arrived into Malaga on the Friday evening chomping at the bit to get out the next morning and see some wildlife. We woke to (our only) gorgeous and calm day so after breakfast headed for the excellent Rio Guadalhorce NR on the edge of the Mediterranean. 100's of Cory's (Scopoli's) Shearwaters were milling about close off-shore (seabirds - my other passion!) along with loads of gulls including some gorgeous Audouin's Gulls. We then visited the main reserve and added a few more choice species including White-headed Duck, Melodious Warbler, Kingfisher, Pallid Swift and our first bird of prey - Booted Eagle.

That afternoon we travelled to Tarifa the closest European town to North Africa and where we were staying ofr the rest of the week.

This is when the 'Levante' (strong East wind) started and blew in earnest all week, which was a little disappointing as it meant the planned boat trip for cetaceans and seabirds had to be cancelled but we did see some migration. During the week we saw 8000+ Honey Buzzards, 3000+ Black Kites, 2000+ Booted Eagles, 1000+ Short-toed Eagles, 200+ Sparrowhawks, 100+ Egyptian Vultures with 10's of Montagu's and Marsh Harriers, Griffon Vulture, Common Buzzard, Lesser and Eurasian Kestrel, 4 Ospreys, 4 Hobbys, 2 Bonelli's Eagles, Peregrine, Black-winged Kite and the rare Ruppell's Vulture - superb. Other highlights included a single White-rumped Swift, Balearic Shearwater, Black Storks, 1000's of White Storks, Purple and Night Herons, Caspian Tern, Red-necked Nightjar, Roller, Tawny Pipit and 1000+ Bee-eaters!!!!

Whinchat

Red-necked Nightjar

Hoopoe

Montagu's Harrier

Los Lances Beach

Lesser Kestrel (La Janda)

Just Incredible

Trip Advisor Video - more to come!

Pyrenees & Picos de Europa Slideshow: Julian’s trip to Huesca was created with TripAdvisor TripWow!

OPPORTUNITY - 10% off

We are looking to fill the Migration Spectacular week in early September and we are offering a full 10% off the advertised price of £1240, which equates to a saving of £124. This pretty much covers the cost of flights and makes this very good value for money compared with other companies offering a similar package.

It is not all about bird migration but that will be breath-taking and a fabulous subject for any photographers, as there's also boat trip out into the Strait's of Gibralter. At this time of year you are almost guarenteed lots of dolphins but also chances of Pilot & Killer Whales at close quarters.

As we speak there is space for one couple but also the possibility of a single, please contact Julian Sykes Wildlife for more information. It will be a tremendous week with many special moments and Honey Buzzards! 

The rest of May and June!

With just two full days off in May and not much more in June due to a couple of trips, but mainly work in Scotland I was ready for my break in July. However that wasn't before two cracking visits to the Plains and Pyrenees of Aragon seeing mouth-watering specialties such as Dupont's Lark, Black-bellied and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Wallcreeper, Lammergeier, Golden Eagle, Honey Buzzard, Black Woodpecker, Alpine Accentor, Citril Finch, Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear, Alpine Marmot and Rebeco (Chamois). It is an amazing region.

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse at El Planeron

El Planeron reserve

Trumpet Gentians

Castillo de Loarre

Firecrest

Pyrenean Rock Lizard

Julian with a Common Toad (M. Thomas)

Pine Hawkmoth (M. Thomas)

Citril Finch

The gorgeous Roncal Valley

Julian and the 2 T's (J. Overall)

Adonis Blue

Southern Turkey

In May a fortnight was spent in Southern Turkey, where we had an incredible time seeing in excess of 200 bird species plus other mammals, reptiles, amphibians and butterflies. Our two weeks were spent at many of the excellent coastal wetlands finding Great Sandplover, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Grey-headed (Purple) Swamp-hen, Moustached Warbler and Black Francolin. We visited the hills of Durnalik for Upcher's Warbler, Kurdish Wheatear, Cinereous Bunting, White-throated Robin, Bimaculated Lark and even watched a Smooth Snake being harassed by an Eastern Rock Nuthatch. Further east around Biricik we visited the Northern Bald Ibis colony, found a day-roosting Striated Scop's Owl, Iraq Babbler and Chestnut-shouldered Petronia and on the plains saw 2 Cream-coloured Coursers, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Trumpeter Finch, Pale Rock Sparrow, See-see Partridge and the rare Goitered Gazelle. Although for most the highlight of the holiday was our visit to the Ala Daglar Mountains where we got brilliant views of Caspian Snowcock, Radde's and Alpine Accentors, Wallcreeper, Red-fronted Serins, White-winged Snowfinch, Alpine Chough and 2 Lammergeiers. However it wasn't just about the wildlife as we even managed a couple of nights in Cappadocia, where we marvelled at the incredible scenery created by the famous 'fairy chimneys' of volcanic tuff and basalt. Waking up in our cave hotel to a still calm morning with the many hot-air balloons floating over the bizarre landscape was quite breath-taking.

Rose Valley, Cappadocia

Kruper's Nuthatch

Ala Daglar Mountains

Love Valley, Cappadocia

Caspian Snowcock

Punk Chaffinch!

Starred Agamas

Souslik

Long-legged Buzzard 

Oertzami's Rock Lizard

White breasted Kingfisher