My First Experience in a Wildlife Photography Hide

When I explained to my brother that I was going to be sitting in a photography hide hoping and waiting that an Iberian Lynx would walk by, for 11+ hours a day and for three consecutive days, he immediately informed me that I needed an 'intervention'. To begin, my first experience in a Photography hide consisted of me sitting alone and in silence in a 2m x 1.5m wood and metal hut from 630am-1pm and 4pm-915pm. Importantly, the glass allows us to see out yet the animals simply see themselves in a mirror when they look at it. Thankfully, this is Spain so they naturally provided us a civilized three hour lunch break which I put to good use.

Sometime last year, I became fascinated with the Iberian Lynx because only 20 years ago there were no more than 100 in existence and most of them were in Spain where I also live. Furthermore, this species is simply very unique and is notably about half the size of its American cousin the Bobcat. Today, no more than 1700 Iberian Lynx are left alive on the entire planet, of which 1400 are in Spain and 12-14 of those are here on this reserve.

When I booked the trip, I was told that there would be a chair to sit on which turned out to be of good quality and reminded me of the $600 Aeron chairs that were popular during the dot-com boom. So that was nice. After I paid my deposit, I was notified that I could not leave the hide whatsoever other than upon arrival and departure and there are no bathrooms in the hides. The solution - bring a jar in which to relieve myself. Without going into any inappropriate details, I must share that I underestimated the size of my bladder and the jar was topped off at 1030am leaving me with a small sense of panic that I would have to go again before 1pm. Fortunately, that was not the case. Consequently, for the remaining two days, I implemented a minimum hydration strategy that worked well.

About 5 or 6 meters In front of each of the hides is a watering hole measuring about 2m in diameter that is maintained by the reserve. As one can imagine, this attracts loads of birds and ideally the occasional Iberian Lynx. It is important to note that the hides are properly designed and built so that the photographers are at just above ground level when seated creating an awesome eye-level perspective with which to capture wildlife images. When you have a look at the images in the Iberian Lynx gallery you will notice the intense gaze of the lynx as he looks right at me. That's because he hears my breathing and my heartbeat. See my images below:

During the first of my six sessions, it was long yet really exciting. I saw lots of birds, rabbits and even a few Red Partridges which made me happy to be connecting with nature. Then, during session two in the evening, the magic happened and I saw my first live Iberian Lynx! I was focusing on a rabbit to my left and wondering to myself what a cool shot it would be to get a rabbit in the foreground and a Lynx walking by in the background...2 seconds later THAT actually happened! Unfortunately, I botched the focus and neither were in focus in the end. I choose to tell myself that autofocus was stuck focusing on a blade of grass and it wasn't my fault at all. Soon thereafter, I got my focusing sorted out and captured this striking image. Below one can see an image of Queen, a seven year-old female and my first Iberian Lynx sighting, captured with some fortunate backlighting from the sunset during golden hour.

photo credit: Max Dobens

If you can't wait to view the best 12 Iberian Lynx images from my trip, click here then come back and finish reading later.

Sessions three and four were essentially full of rabbits playing and birds bathing. And lots of waiting. To my surprise, I was extraordinarily patient, and this from a guy who refuses to wait in line for anything. During these sessions, I began to go through every app on my phone and silence the notifications so as not to startle the animals because they can hear almost everything. Happily, I have not changed the settings back and don't plan on it. While sitting and waiting in the hides, I found myself pondering about various odd things such as what it would be like to think like a lynx or a bird or a rabbit? What goes through their head? Why do they do what they do? All of this alone time allowed me to reflect on the beauty of life and revisit some fond childhood memories exploring the woods near my childhood home in Upstate NY.

The main challenge I encountered was that 11 hours a day is a lot of time to remain alert and perceptive. In short, this was the most intense and draining aspect of the process. Ask any wildlife photographer about this, they will promptly confirm there is a massive amount of sitting around and waiting. One of my tools to try and enjoy and endure the waiting was to scour the area for details and be perceptive. I challenged myself to look for things, both small and large, that were moving and also not moving. For example, I noticed some ants moving something back and forth upon the ledge in front of the hide and I photographed them going about their business. I also spotted a hare about 100 meters away moving slowly, but I saw him because I was looking.

Session five was the worst of all. There were hardly any birds, about 4 or 5 rabbits and maybe an Imperial Spanish Eagle 1km away - that was it over a six hour period. Compounding the misery, the guide told us that a lynx walked by our hide 15 minutes after we left. Definitely the low point on the trip.

During the final hour of the last hide session, I was enjoying the sunset and watching the changes made by the shadows during the long sunny afternoon and I remember thinking about what I was going to write in this blog post. One point to be made was going to be a father-like comment about not looking at your phone when in a hide. However, that is a very valid point, so limit your phone use to photos only. In this final hour I reasoned that if I were a lynx, I would most probably walk past the hide on the dirt path to my right. Therefore, I set my phone to 5X video mode just in case a lynx happened to walk by because I wouldn't likely get a good shot of the face so it would be better to capture some video instead. I am not exaggerating when I say that literally 5 seconds later, an Iberian Lynx casually strolled past me on the dirt road on my right! By pure coincidence, I was ready with phone in hand and excitedly captured a 10 second video before heading back to my camera. Totally unbelievable - yet completely true! Here is a link to that video.

Over the next 30 minutes is when I experienced THE highlight of my three days and 33+ hours in a photography hide. The lynx walked by on my right and continued purposefully into the bushes as if he was going to buy a loaf of bread. After disappearing for a bit, I then I observed various movements behind the trees and tall grass over the next 20 minutes. As suddenly as he entered the bushes, he emerged from them licking his chops in the same slow strut as before. Presumably he caught and ate a rabbit but I couldn't be sure. As if he had done this many times before, he headed straight towards the watering hole - a mere 5 meters in front of me - for an "after dinner drink" of water. All this time I was was shooting 10 frames/second at 1/500 of a second shutter speed. Needless to say, I ended up with more than 1500 images. Later, when I closely examined my images and noticed blood on his paws, I realized that a rabbit had been caught and eaten for dinner that night.

Three consecutive days was a lot and I recall saying to the guide on the drive out to the final session that next time I will only book two days. I was lucky enough to have captured an amazing shot of Queen, backlit by the sunset, and if I got anything else from the last session it would simply be a bonus. Fortunately for me, it turns out the last session was beyond amazing and truly unforgettable. If you want to see the best 12 images of the 1500, click on this link to visit the Iberian Lynx gallery.

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