BBC Wildlife - UK (2021-12)

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 79

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Head to the

Scottish Highlands

for a possible

sighting of a top

avian predator:

the golden eagle

A train ride north transports you to
Inverness, from where hiring a vehicle
enables you to roam the Scottish Highlands

• realm of the golden eagle. Abernethy
  Forest hosts well-known specialities such
  as red squirrels, and ospreys famously nest
  at RSPB Loch Garten. Less trumpeted but
  just as exciting are scarce dragonflies, such
  as the white-faced darter, and orchids,
  including creeping lady’s-tresses. Next,
  motor west to the woodlands around Fort
  William, where chequered skippers flutter
  by day, and to Glenloy Lodge, where pine
  martens patrol by night.
  Arctic Finland and Norway excel
  in late winter, particularly when the
  Aurora Borealis swirls through the night
  sky. Finland’s Neljän Tuulen Tupa is a
  photographer’s dream, with well-stocked
  feeders attracting evocatively named birds
  hard to see elsewhere, notably the Siberian
  jay, Siberian tit and Arctic redpoll. Then
  press polewards to Varanger, Norway, where
  tundra-flanked coast secretes vast flocks of

mammal-watching tour in Romania?

Between the Danube Delta, Dobrudja and

Transylvania, you may tot up an astonishing

40 species, mostly on night adventures.

The mouth-watering selection ranges

from the diminutive (Romanian hamster)

to the huge (Carpathian brown bear), via

the special (wildcat and golden jackal) and

the wacky (European ground squirrel and

lesser blind mole rat).

seaducks such as Steller’s and king eiders,

while the imperious gyrfalcon ransacks

seething auk colonies.

Alternatively, head south to Spain’s

Sierra de Andújar, where your main quarry

will be the disconcertingly sphinx-like

Iberian lynx. Though one of the world’s

rarest felines, reintroductions have

bolstered populations, so your chances

are now good. While you search, there

are plenty of other wild

delights to enthrall:

Iberian ibex scaling

craggy outcrops, Spanish

imperial eagles cruising

through cobalt skies

and stripeless tree frogs

serenading by night.

If seeing Iberian

lynx tickles your fancy

for furry creatures,

why not join a specialist

Seek Spain’s Iberian lynx

Swallowtails:

an insect

highlight of the

Norfolk Broads

FIND OUT MORE

● norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

● varanger. net

● rspb.org.uk