Fauna & Flora Articles

Wallcreeper - Tichodroma muraria

Spotlight on the wallcreeper: bird of the year 2025

The wallcreeper, with its bright scarlet wing patches, is one of the Pyrenees most famous birds and prized sighting for ornithologists. It’s being celebrated as the ‘Bird of 2025’ by SEO/Birdlife to highlight the dangers it faces and why this small bird is so special.

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New Pyrenees wildflower and fauna guidebook in English

New Pyrenees wildflower and fauna guidebook in English

This superb Pyrenees nature and wildlife guide is now available to order from the Hike Pyrenees website – click here for details. A superb new book on Pyrenees wildlife in English has been published and is a must for any nature lover visiting the Pyrenees. This...

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Lakes and Valley’s flora specific week

Lakes and Valley’s flora specific week

We all know that the flowers here in the Pyrenees are spectacular, particularly during June. With this in mind along with knowing that many of our guests love combining hiking with the study of the all the beautiful flowers here, we decided a flower specific Lakes and...

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Wild boar in the Pyrenees

Wild boar in the Pyrenees

Rarely seen but never far away whilst out hiking are the wild boar or as the locals would call them -‘Jabali’. Much to my delight at the beginning of September this year I had a guiding ‘first’ whilst hiking with Tom, George, Clare and Cynthia...

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More snakes in the Pyrenees

More snakes in the Pyrenees

Rosie living on the French side of the Pyrenees near Canigou wrote to us recently with a snake identification question. She’d found one in her house and managed to get this picture! It’s a little bit difficult to identify it without seeing its head but we...

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Autumn Lady’s Tresses – Spiranthes Spiralis

Autumn Lady’s Tresses – Spiranthes Spiralis

I found an orchid that I’d not seen before earlier this week – an Autumn Lady’s Tresses (Spiranthes Spiralis). It’s a short orchid (around 15 cm) with tiny flowers (only around 6mm) that spiral around the stem in a very attractive way....

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Flowers in the Valle de Salazar

Flowers in the Valle de Salazar

I ‘m hiking in Navarra with Javier for a few days checking routes for our Western Pyrenees holiday. Today we hiked up the peak of Ori which is the first 2000m peak of the Pyrenees.   we had superb views across the Pyrenees range. The flora was superb with...

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Snakes in the Pyrenees

Snakes in the Pyrenees

Ian a regular reader of the blog recently sent me a couple of photos of some snakes he’d seen on the French side of the Pyrenees to identify. He’d found a lovely example of a green whipsnake. It’s a long thin snake which can rach up to 2 metres but...

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Punta Cochata (1901m)

Punta Cochata (1901m)

Snows melting in the Pyrenees and I was out hiking today in the Valle de Tena with a friend Gustavo. We chose the peak of Cochata which sits in the middle of the valley with great views in all directions. Although not high it’s quite a rocky peak and looks as if...

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New route option on our Village to Village holiday

A great new viewpoint has been constructed above Panticosa which has allowed us to add a new option on day 3 of our Village to Village walking holiday. Cucuraza (1758m) sits high above Panticosa and gives fantastic views down onto the village and across the southern...

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