Searching for WILD SPAIN

My eyes ached. I lowered my binoculars to blink back some life into them then resumed the vigil.Wildlife watching, I reflected, sometimes involves staring for a very long time at nothing while hoping, in vain, for something. But with expert guide Fernando Ballesteros beside me doing the same, I was determined not to be caught napping.

The ‘nothing’ I was scrutinising was, to be fair, the glorious dawn vista of northern Spain’s Cantabrian mountains, and the ‘something’ for which we were combing the rugged slopes was a wild brown bear. Our odds on a sighting were hard to gauge. Here, in Fuentes del Narcea Natural Park, we were deep in bear country and the roadside mirador is a renowned viewing spot. Furthermore, this was peak time: early autumn generally brings the animals up to the higher slopes for the blueberries. But it had been a bad blueberry year, Fernando explained, and they could still be down in the woods, polishing off the last of the season’s hazelnuts.

“Birds appeared as the sun rose: a soaring honey buzzard heading south; red-billed choughs tumbling around the cliffs;