Chameleon Karma

For a long time I have been promising myself a serious search for the elusive Mediterranean Chameleon, and when Iberian Lynx in Andalucia guest Wayne Atkinson wanted an addition to this short break, it all possible!

So with just one day we set off from Malaga early Sunday morning and got to the town mid-morning with plenty of time to find our target - or so we thought!

The botanical garden is only small but these gorgeous creatures are canny elusive and it took the lovely Andrea who worked there to point them out, much to our shame!!! In all we saw four individuals including one sizable male, which was fabulous and "thank you so much" to Andrea and the rest of the staff for all their help in finding them.

After this we returned slowly to Malaga and the weather prevented us from finding any Spanish Ibex at El Torcal (hopefully next week), but the last hour at the Rio Guadalhorce NR and beach was superb with Arctic & Great Skuas, Turnstone plus lots of Common Scoter, Gannets etc. However it was Wayne who caused the greatest excitement by finding the first of four Short-eared Owls hunting over the open areas at dusk and my 141st bird of the year!

Not so missing Lynx!

Great start to the Iberian Lynx watching year with multiple sightings on all the full days we were on the Sierra de Andujar. Another personal highlight was watching some interaction between this young male Lynx and a Red Fox as they seemed to travel together for a while before they peeled off in their respective directions - very interesting!

 

Added to that I also moved ny year list forward somewhat with several new birds including Spanish Imperial Eagle, Black Vulture, Black Wheatear, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Common Crane and a surprise Alpine Accentor at Cabo de Gata - I will take them all this year...

 

...So the list stands in the mid-130's and my target for 140+ by the end of the month looks acheivable - fingers crossed. Please keep those pladges rolling in, it is simply awesome.

Money pouring in!

Today I am down in Malaga getting ready to start my first of several visits to the Sierra de Andujar. Not only am I hoping for continued excellent Iberian Lynx sightings but to continue adding to the year list and hopefully achieve 140+ species by the end of the month.

Last Sunday, a couple of events coincided to push forward the sponsorship money for 'Life Lince', which were the counting of the 'Money Pig' and I hosted a quiz in the local bar. Both of these fundraising exercises were great successes with 230 euros being counted out of the Pig and 180 euros from the quiz and raffle.

 

Thank you very much to the few who participated in the free competition and the winner will be notified very soon - apparently their guess was 231, which is amazing. Very well done and £50 will be deducted from your next JSW holiday or short break. Also I would like to very much thank Jane for her  invaluable assistance on the quiz night,  Lucy (and Tara) of Bar Amigos for letting me utilise their establishment and to everyone who contributed on the night either with participation or with some of the generous raffle prizes - it is greatly appreciated.

 

So as it stands at the moment with the money I have been pledged for the annual bird race, we are currently in excess of 2000 euros, which is absolutely phenomenal!!!