My Blog - Jeff Clarke

Mountain High

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All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011

One of the joys of wildlife tour leading is getting to show and share so many wonderful sights with other people. My tour of the Picos de Europa in May 2011, in partnership with Teresa Farino of Iberian Wildlife Tours was exceptional not only for the variety of flora and fauna to be seen, but also the witnessing of some fascinating and rarely observed animal behaviour.

In comparison to last years tour Spring 2011 was very advanced in its season. As a consequence we enjoyed a significantly different combination of animals and plants during the 10 days in the region.

We arrived in Spain via the Brittany Super-ferry 'Pont Aven', from which we had close up views of Striped and Short beaked Common Dolphins and then joined Teresa and our Australia participant at Santander. From here we headed for Liencres Dunes seeing many superb dune plants, though the highlight was an unexpected Nightjar which we accidentally disturbed from its daytime reverie, much to the alarm of the local Wren population.

Post lunch We headed for the Picos de Europa and entered via the imposing limestone gorge of La Hermida. We settled the clients at the El Hoyal Hotel in Pesaguero and so began our explorations of the majestic mountains and valleys of this extra-ordinary part of 'Green Spain'.

A full tour review will be produced in due course and anyone seriously interested in joining future tours will find much greater detail posted there, however this blog is just a taster of what it is possible to find and enjoy in this mountainous wonderland.

The flora of the Picos de Europa are justly famous and the star attractions for most people are the myriad orchids which abound in the meadows and woodlands. With Teresa's vital local knowledge this tour excelled itself with at least 36 different species, many in high abundance. The most flamboyant species was arguably the exotic and aptly named Lizard Orchid.

The tour enjoyed fantastic weather, partly due to to Teresa's knowledge of weather patterns in the Picos, the sunshine brought forth a multitude of species, dominated by various blues and fritillaries. Some of the 'secret meadows' we were able to visit had so many butterflies dancing across the flower tops that it was difficult to keep track of all the species we were seeing. By no means the rarest, the Black-veined Whites were for me a picture of elegance, but with so many species how do you choose a favourite?

The sunshine also brought out the reptiles and we had stupendous and exciting, if slightly grisly, images of a Grass Snake consuming a Midwife Toad and more unusually a large Smooth Snake killing and eating one of its smaller brethren. Lizards were very plentiful and apart from the expected Common Wall Lizards it was a real bonus to find Large Psammodromus and Ocellated Lizard.

As usual mammals were harder to come by but persistence paid off with Southern Chamois in the high mountains and Daubenton's Bat's watched by torchlight feeding over the river close to the hotel. The only Southern Water Vole we actually clapped eyes on was in the talons of a Common Buzzard seconds after it plummeted to the ground a few metres away from us. What must it be like to have vision like that?

Each suitable weather night we would put out the moth trap (you need special licenses to do this in Spain) and we caught a huge variety and number of species, including many that would be familiar to UK naturalists,such as Peppered Moths and Elephant Hawk-moths, however we also caught many species either very rare or non-existant in the UK, including the largest moth found in Europe, the gargantuan and 'Vulcan bomber-like' Giant Peacock Moth. what a beast!

A dabble in local waterways, both running and still, brought many new species, the highlight of which was probably the White-clawed Crayfish, though it was hard pressed by the resplendant Marbled and Alpine Newts, rigged out in their breeding regalia.

By the time we finished the tour we had seen a superb range of birds, though we had to work hard to see some of them. One encounter stands out from all others. High in the mountains above the clouds we searched the boulder fields for one of Europe's most charismatic birds. Snowfinches and Alpine Accentors vied for our attention but eventually had to concede the crown of 'Paragon of the Peaks' to a dazzling limpet of a bird. Here before us was a bird that even as a child had captured my imagination and as ever it did not disappoint. We had prolonged and at times super-close-up views of the imperious Wallcreeper. It wasn't quite the end of the tour but it certainly felt like we had climbed to the highest pinnacle. Still images never quite capture the essence of a living creature, certainly not one as breathtaking as this one, but I hope you enjoy one of the many pictures I took of the female that spent perhaps 10 minutes within a few metres of where I stood gazing in wonderment. Pure joy!

Teresa and I would love to share our enthusiasm for this place and its unique wealth of wildlife with you. If you would like to find out more about our 2012 tour please click here.