walked a little bit further than I planned today, and may have lost the path for a little bit... but well worth the extra steps when I bumped into this beautiful Asp #oof #lifer #WildlifeTravelling in the #Pyrenees

a handful of highlights of a few days in the Spanish Pyrenees, giving our Aragon itinerary a bit of a refresh, 14 years since I was last here... Pyrenean Iris, Alpine Marmot, Pyrenean Honeysuckle and Spanish Fritillary so far, so fab #WildlifeTravelling in the #Pyrenees

another year, another profile pic... I'm not sure the perfect Scarce Swallowtail* photo exists, but that doesn't stop me trying to take it, time and again... (*Iberian Scarce Swallowtail on this occasion...) #WildlifeTravelling in the #Pyrenees #NewProfilePic #ThirstTrap

this year's spring visit to Estonia is coming to an atmospheric end last night our group headed out onto the bogs of Soomaa, where lekking Great Snipe bounced and a Lynx casually sauntered across the track... #WildlifeTravelling at it's best

As there's an #orchid theme going on this evening, I thought I'd share four stunning species seen on the recent @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Transylvania holiday that I led - intensely purple Green-winged-orchid, Three-toothed Orchid, Monkey Orchid and a very stately Sword-leaved Helleborine

ended our leaders' meet up with a lazy wander around @rspb.bsky.social Arne reserve, with soaring Ospreys, a showy Dartford Warbler and snoring sows #WildlifeTravelling

thanks to @beardybirder.bsky.social for organising, and for laying on a great Nightjar display this evening

finished the day all of a churr

A lovely morning spent on Hartland Moor, as part of an an enjoyable get together with some of the other @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social leaders, saw us taking in a wealth of rare and/or range-restricted heathland species, incl'g Southern Damselfly, Thomisus onustus, Chrysotoxum vernale, & Sand Lizard

New blog: #wildlifetravelling on Lesvos, Greece, at the turn of the month. Two nests of Krüper's Nuthatch, several Persian Squirrels & much more besides. @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social www.jameslowen.com/blog-10-may-...

Some of the varied highlights of our last 24h on Lesvos, with the @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social tour. Birds, moths, irises, orchids, scorpions…

you can't come to Crete and not walk a gorge and get a cricked neck staring up at endemic chasmophytes so today that's exactly what we did, with Staehelina petiolata, Ebenus cretica and Brassica cretica amongst the cliff-loving treasures we'll be coming back to Crete in April 2027: come & join us!

while the plants have been amazing in #Crete, the birds have been pretty good too Little & Spotted Crakes appeared in a ditch before breakfast, 30 White Storks just flew north, Red-footed & Eleonora's Falcons, daily flocks of Golden Orioles & Bee-eaters... migration is all go! #WildlifeTravelling

from the hilltops, we dropped down to the beach, to "admire" the critically endangered Colchicum reichingeri, a December-flowering geophyte found at just a handful of coastal locations in western Crete and across in Libya #WildlifeTravelling in #Crete

#WildlifeMaxxing at it's Cretan best today, with Griffons overhead, Cretan Festoon along the track sides, and amazing wild flowers, including two very localised endemics: Dianthus xylorrhizus and Centaurea redempta subsp redempta #WildlifeTravelling with @sarahlambert7.bsky.social

a day for the botany nerds amongst us the tiny Muscari cf heldreichii, perhaps an as-yet-undescribed endemic the critically endangered, endemic Salix kaptarae, described as recently as 2019 and the iconic Tulipa saxatilis up on the Omalos plateau. #WildlifeTravelling in #Crete

day 4 of our Crete trip began with a staggering 14 (!!) Golden Orioles in a mulberry tree continued with Cretan Wall Lizards getting jiggy, the stunning Orobanche lavandulacea and a sultry Eleonora's Falcon at Aptera & ended with Nathusius's Pipistrelles by the pool #WildlifeTravelling in #Crete

a couple of gory highlights from our sunny day on the Akrotiri peninsula, in the fleshy form of Cytinus hypocistis, (ant-pollinated, parasite & member of the Rafflesiaceae) & the always wonderful Dragon Arum, filling the hillsides with the aroma of rotting sheep... #WildlifeTravelling in #Crete

getting giddy on the bumps, on the first day of our return to Crete orchids, orchids everywhere Orchis italica, Naked Man Orchid Ophrys tenthredinifera, Sawfly Orchid Ophrys cretica, Cretan Bee Orchid Anacamptis boryi #WildlifeTravelling in #Crete

Mofffs

NEW BLOG: Cyprus spring 2026 with @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social, led by @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social Click www.jameslowen.com/blog-3-apr-2... to read

Between checking our Cyprus-touring @travel_wildlife group in to Paphos airport yesterday, and going through security for the flight, @WildlifePrecey and I had time to march along to Timi Beach to tick Bimaculated Lark, with a side-order of Trumpeter Finch. Rubbish photos, but much excitement!

the Black Forest looking pretty white this afternoon... #HomeTime

one last jog along the beach, in between bag drop and security, resulted in Bimaculated Lark at Timi beach ('most wanted' for @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social), as well as the bonus male Trumpeter Finch, neatly bookending the trip with pinky-buff finches #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus #CyprusBirds

anyone for #MothBreakfast? and our first rain of the week just before we left the hotel brought Purple Heron, Whinchat and a Thrush Nightingale into the garden. Cyprus, we will be back... #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus with @jameslowenwild.bsky.social

A fine farewell from the hotel gardens of our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus tour, which proffered Dyscia simplicaria (a little-known endemic), a crowdpleasing Striped Hawk-moth, an intermittently showy Thrush Nightingale and an ostentious Collared Flycatcher (among 8 Ficedula in the garden)

Spot the moth-er’s hotel bedroom…

two wildlife-packed weeks in Cyprus comes to an end a rarity-packed 1st half brought us Namaqua Dove, Desert Finch, Isabelline Shrike & Caspian Stonechats then a 2nd half filled w/ flitting Ficedula a new dot on the map for Kotschy's Orchid was a plant highlight, & Purple Marbled was a dream moth

To paraphrase @dunnjons.bsky.social, writing recently about Kotschy’s orchid, it is unconceivable for a wildlife-watcher to leave Cyprus without seeing its endemic warbler. Our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social group enjoyed several today, plus much else besides.

all three Cypriot endemic birds singing within walking distance of our hotel today, along with 23 orchid taxa, ace #MothBreakfast, at least 20 B&W flycatchers (3+ Semicollared amongst them), another reeling Savi's Warbler, & 10+ Cretzschmar's Buntings #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus #CyprusBirds

As the late douglas boyes once suggested, we should crowdsource vernacular names for moths. @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social suggests Blue-eyed Flatterer for the sumptuous Eutelia adulatrix. I concur. Anyone else in?

we started the day looking through a fence at Tulipa agenensis and finished it off looking through a fence at Spur-winged Lapwing #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus

a proper wagtail pick and mix this afternoon at Mandria beach, with Grey-headed thunbergi, Blue-headed flava and Black-headed feldegg, all busy feeding up before they fan out across Europe #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus #CyprusBirds

moth breakfast, nom nom nom Eutelia adulatrix, the blue-eyed flatterer™, in all her crunchy glory, thanks to @jameslowenwild.bsky.social and his trust actinic #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus

when the garden is home to 2 Semicollared and 3 Collared Flycatchers, Wood Warbler and Great Reed Warbler, Cyprus and Isabelline Wheatear, it's hard to tear yourself away... but glad we did, to enjoy the Little Crakes and Great Spotted Cuckoos around Agia Varvara today #CyprusBirds

Although Lemon-yellow Treefrog won my personal ‘animal of the day’ on our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus explorations today, the hotel garden was bounteous, with 2 Semi-collared & 3 Collared Flycatchers, & Cyprus Wheatear - all piebald drakes - plus Wood Warbler, Redstart, Tree Pipits…

morning mothage the rather dreamy Purple Marbled the highlight of this morning's moth breakfast with @jameslowenwild.bsky.social #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus

When your @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus tour day starts with Semi-collared, Collared and Pied Flycatchers in the hotel garden, plus Purple Marbled, Levant Blackneck and a splendid mantid at the moth trap, you quickly have a smile on your boatrace @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social

Delighted that our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus group enjoyed these Kotschy’s Orchids in the unexpected location of Paphos. Thanks to @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social for his sharp eyes and to @orientbutterflies.bsky.social for finding a different plant there yesterday! (rfi any named variants?)

the gloriously wonky Ophrys kotschyi it's been a few years since we've caught up with this dark beauty, so it was wonderful to find a new site for Cyprus's sultriest Ophrys (second only to those ghostly Bees) #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus with @jameslowenwild.bsky.social

another day, another wheatear on a post, this one a Cyprus Wheatear just along the coast from the hotel a pair of Masked Shrikes nearby, and a handful of Eastern Bonelli's Warblers flitting through the maquis made for a good start to our second week of #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus #CyprusBirds

changeover day in Cyprus, as we waved our first group off at the airport, had a short wander along Timi beach with 4 species of wheatear, picked up our second group and took them straight to enjoy Cyprus's fourth Desert Finch in nearby Paphos #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus, round 2

the last full day for our first week in Cyprus, and we had a wonderful wander through the woods, bumping into Cyprus Warbler, Cyprus Wheatear, & enough orchids to keep even the keenest orchid-phile happy. throw in a delicious taverna banquet, & we're a pretty content bunch of Wildlife Travellers...

the lovely little male Namaqua Dove found 3 days ago @ Mandria did the noble thing & hung on for us, posing in the sunshine this afternoon. more unobtrusive beauties earlier in the day with up to 4 Little Crakes creeping around the pools @ Agia Varvara #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus #CyprusBirds

seems to have been a mass emergence of Eastern Festoons today, with 50+ on the wing during our local amblings and always good to see their spectacular foodplant: any day with an Aristolochia is a good day... #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus

a fun day amongst the ruins around Paphos, with the long-staying Isabelline Shrike, a late Finsch's Wheatear, male Rock Thrush and 2 Caspian Stonechats on the headland, along with Rüppell's Warblers aplenty worth getting a little bit wet for. #CyprusBirds #WildlifeTravelling in Cyprus

We have just a few spaces left on our European trips for spring 2026. Cyprus in March, Estonia in May and two trips to the Alps by train in June If you were still thinking of joining us this year, now is the time to book your place! wildlife-travel.co.uk/our-holidays...

The diverisity of habitats within Costa Rica is staggering, & our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social group were able to experience a fantastic sample of them, incl'g Pacific coastal waters & seasonal forest, Caribbean lowland forest, mid & high elevation tropical forests, & the fascinating paramo