One of the reasons the Picos de Europa was made a National Park, and more recently a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, is its hay meadows. Flowers abound in these traditionally-managed pockets of colour before they're cut in June. From April/May to September/October botanists can also head higher to the splendours of the alpine pastures and natural rock gardens to find the myriad flowers there among the limestone peaks. Some plants are endemic to the Cantabrian mountains and a few to just the Picos de Europa themselves.
See also Orchids
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Guided Wildlife Walks
 Daily natural history excursions in search of, for example, alpine wildflowers, orchids, birds,
butterflies, chamois........
Led by Teresa Farino.
Click on the image for details.
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Exactly a week after my first wild tulip foray on the 10th of May I managed to get back to this area of the Picos de Europa regional park to try my luck again.
It's that time of year again for my annual wild-tulip-in-flower hunt. A very hit and miss affair. Heading over the San Glorio pass we stopped at a favourite small meadow to check out what, if anything after such a hard winter, was flowering.
Among this year's abundant flushes of bank-side primroses and cowslips I've found more Angel's tears (Narcissus triandrus spp. triandrus) than ever before. Whether this is due to the tremendous amount of rain/snowfall this past winter or just that I'd never properly looked, I'm not sure. Whatever the reason it's muddy knee time again!
This May I was lucky to escape my usual routine and enjoy three days out with Teresa Farino and Jeff Clarke on their Picos de Europa guided wildlife holiday. Between these two experts in their fields they have bases pretty much covered, Teresa looking after plants, butterflies and moths and Jeff birds, mammals and other invertebrates.
