Spain Time !

Hides de Calera (Day 1) - 12.10.2025

I’ve been looking forward to this trip to Hides de Calera to photograph the Iberian Lynx based in central Spain for some time, visiting earlier wasn’t really an option as they book up around eighteen months in advance, so with all arrangements in place, flights booked I'm off on a late flight to Madrid.

I’m pretty much doing what I've done previously staying overnight in a hotel close to the airport, then a pickup late afternoon the following day by HDC so plenty of time to relax before the drive down to Talavera. I’m staying for a week in a two start hotel quite basic and similar to that on the last trip to Villacarnas.

All checked into the Talavera “Hilton”…not ! ....it's a quick briefing from the Jose the operator stating it's the Iberian Lynx hide first up in the morning. Now the following day feedback we are getting from a remote camera is showing the female cat and a cub are at the location, the anticipation builds.

A clearing in the forest has several wooden hides which will be home for the next few hours, I’ve been in better but they do a job. The female is laying down out in the open just in front of the hide giving some clear shots, then out of the tree line the cub comes bounding out. It’s a leisurely shoot over the next hours then in a flash the female grabs a rabbit and disappears off into the forest not to reappear for the next seven hours !

Now late afternoon the female cat reappears walking slowly up the forest track occasionally looking back to the cub that's following up behind. For the next couple of hours both cats just rest up, it's a case of just picking the most interesting pose on offer.

And that’s it for the first day, a long day with a long period of inaction. Tomorrow it's the “Valley Hide” primarily for vultures and others things, watch this space.

Iberian Lynx

Iberian Lynx - Cub