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.

read more...

Snowshoeing in the Ordesa Valley

Ordesa has had lots of snow this winter and you can snowshoe straight from the Pardera car park where there’s several feet of snow. The valley looks beautiful in the snow and I’ve been over there a couple of times in the past few weeks – one time...

read more...

First Egyptian vultures of the year

Saw my first pair of Egyptian Vultures this year while out cycling near Biescas. Lucky enough to get a couple of good pictures of them strutting around a field. Seems very early in the season to see them – they migrate to north Africa and the Middle East in the...

read more...

Snowshoeing at La Cuniacha

La Cuniacha animal park keeps animals that are or were once indigenous to the Pyrenees. They’ve lots of rare species including european lynx, bison, iberan ibex, wolves and lots of different types of chamois and deer. It’s a great place to visit any time...

read more...

Vulture feeding station planned for the Valle de Tena

La Cuniacha – the wild animal park in Piedrafita – yesterday announced that they will be opening a vulture feeding station next spring. This is fantastic news and will give Hike Pyrenees guests even more opportunities to see Lammergeier, griffon vultures,...

read more...

Workshop on animal tracks

There’s a workshop and excurison on identifying animal tracks, birds nests, feathers and lots of other interesting stuff this Wednesday at 6pm in Riglos – you need to call and put your name on. It’s a beautiful area with beautiful high red...

read more...

Ladys Slipper Orchid

The wonderful and very rare Lady’s Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) has been in flower again this June. The Valley de Tena is luck enough to have a population of around a dozen of these fantastic plants. It’s one of only 3 populations left in the...

read more...

Walking between Pyrenean villages

Took advantage of the fantastic weather and hiked between the villages of Sandinies and Piedrafita passing by Ibon de Piedrafita under the cliffs of the Sierra de Partacua. This is actually the final day of our Village to Village walking holiday and a beautiful days...

read more...

Wildflowers and butterflies in the Pyrenees

The warm weather during April and May means that the Pyrenees are already bursting with life and lots of species of wildflowers that I wouldn’t normally expect to see at this time of year are already flowering – these are all photos taken on my hikes over...

read more...

Ibon de la Sierra

Explored the remote Ibon de la Sierra and was rewarded with great views and wildlife including a lammergeier, chamois, kestrels and my first marmots of the season. It’s an area of the Valle de Tena that I’d wanted to hike in for ages but never seemed to...

read more...