Wildlife highlights from our first Scottish trip

This was the first time I had visited Scotland since I was a kid and I was looking forward to catching up with some of the mammals and birds that tend to be associated with this beautiful part of the British Isles. The weather behaved itself for the majority of the holiday, even around Mull and the Fort William area (where I thought it was supposed to rain all the time!!).

For the first part of the holiday we stayed in Carrbridge at the Dalrachney Lodge (highly recommended), situated inside of the Cairngorms National Park, and not far from many key birding sites, some mentioned below.

October 9: Day 1
One of the first bird related places we visited was Loch Ruthven, home of the Slavonian Grebes. Not sure if they would still be in residence, I wasn’t too disappointed to find the loch deserted, apart from a few Mallard. The last sighting in the visitor book was several weeks earlier confirming what I already suspected. The loch was still beautiful in the morning light and a solitary Meadow Pipit, Two Jays, Common Buzzard and my first Red Squirrel made a welcomed start to the week’s wildlife list.

After visiting the Loch Ness area we decided to have a drive to Glen Affric. Unfortunately this coincided with a period of heavy rain, so only brief walks away from the car were undertaken. Species seen include Grey Heron, Goldcrest, Chaffinch, Robin, Coal Tit, Great Tit and my first Hooded Crows (in a field on the journey back to Carrbridge).

October 10: Day 2
The morning began with a drive along the Findhorn Valley, including a brief ride down the Farr road. No eagles were spotted among the abundant wildlife, despite my Sarah’s best efforts. We did see our first Red Deer of the trip high up on the hill, as well as Red Grouse on the Farr road and several Kestrel and Buzzard.

After lunch in Aviemore we had a long walk around Loch-en-Elein (Rothiemurchius), taking advantage of the gorgeous afternoon weather. By now I was beginning to get frustrated at not having seen any Crested Tits, despite visiting two great areas of Caladonian Pine Forest, and much to Sarah’s annoyance, stopping to examine every bird sound.



After an hour, my patience (read obsessive behaviour) was rewarded with great sightings of several Crested Tits flitting around the tree tops. On passing the bins to Sarah I was surprised to hear her tell me in her best ‘unimpressed voice’ that she sees them all the time in Essex! I soon realised that the Crested Tit in her field of view had swapped places with a Coal Tit. Luckily we saw another Cresty further up the track, along with two Red Squirrels.

That night we had our mammal spotting session organised through Speyside Wildlife. I was not disappointed when we returned to our hotel having seen six different Badger, a number of Red Deer hinds, Wood Mice, Pipistrelle Bats and the highlight of the evening- a year old Pine Marten.



October 11: Day 3
Speyside Steam Railway/Glenlivet Whisky Tour. No birding/Wildlife Watching.

October 12: Day 4
I woke early with the idea of going for a pre-breakfast walk around the hotel grounds. After finding nothing but Wrens, Blackbirds and Blue Tits, I decided to drive the short distance to Loch Garten where I spent several minutes watching some Goldeneye on the water. After an unsuccessful hunt for Crossbills around the car park I quietly walked the short distance to the Osprey observation hide, where I stopped to take in the view. I was just admiring the empty nest through my bins when a huge bird took off from the scrub on my right. I couldn’t believe my luck when I realised it was a female Capercaillie. Not wanting to disturb the bird or any others that might have been hidden out of view, I resisted the temptation to walk further into the forest. I returned to my car with a huge smile on my face and watched three young Red Squirrels fight each other up and down a pine tree.

The rest of the day was taken up by the drive to Fort William stopping at various points to look at waterfalls, lochs and places from ‘Monarch of the Glen’ (my girlfriend tells me it's called compromise!).

We did, however, stop at Insh Marshes near Kingussie. This was more of a spur of the moment decision when we saw the RSPB sign, although we were glad we did and would recommend it to anyone passing.

We walked to the viewing point which was more of a room than a hide. While I looked in the visitor book, Sarah took my bins and quickly identified three Roe Deer does feeding on the flood plain below. I quickly joined her at the window and watched a flock of Redwings fly passed, followed by a small party of Long-tailed Tits. Back down on the plain a Buzzard and Kestrel were soon joined by a ringtail Hen Harrier, much to the horror of a flock of Teal on one of the small pools.

October 13: Day 5
For the second part of our holiday we were based in a B&B in Fort William. We had breakfast early and arrived in Oban with plenty of time to board the 10am ferry to Mull. The sun was shining and everything was going to plan.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the queue for the boat. Unknown to us it was the Car Rally Weekend and all vehicle places on the ferry were fully booked. Among the Subarus and other rally cars, there were large numbers of support trucks, ambulances and regular tourists sitting in their cars with smug ‘I had the sense to book’ looks on their faces.

I still don’t know how we managed to fit onto the ferry, especially considering there were at least ten cars waiting before us in the cancellation lane! I can only be grateful that we got to Mull without further problems, and by 11am we were driving towards Grass Point in search of eagles and otters.

One of the first birds we saw was a ringtail Hen Harrier, followed by a party of Red-breasted Merganser, a single Greenshank, loads of Redwings, Curlew and Redshank.

Soon Stonechat was added to the list, followed by Rock Pipit, more Red Deer and some Ravens. 

We were making our way along the shore of Loch-na-Keal when we started to notice that all available stopping points were taken up by groups of people, obviously connected to the Rally due to start that night. Any chance of seeing an otter was thrown out of the window by the amount of disturbance around the area.

Apart from nearly been hit head-on by some tosser in an unofficial rally car, the rest of the morning went well with many wading and sea birds added to the list.

After lunch we continued the drive around the island. Before long I looked in my rear view mirror to see a Vauxhall Astra driving about 5cm from the rear of my car! Decorated with a tacky carbon-fibre type bonnet and those cheap replica BMW M3 wing mirrors, the car contained five squashed-up chavs, all wearing matching caps and drinking cans of lager. Was I in Mull or had I somehow ended up in Southend?!?

What had happened is the spectators had arrived on the lunch time ferry and were now infesting the island with their crappy cars and even worse driving. While probably only a minority of the rally fans actually behaved badly, the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to get away from the increasing crowds. Every passing place seemed to be taken up by their cars, and all stopping areas full of groups of blokes looking at car engines. Litter was thrown out of car windows and one lad even relieved himself in full view at the side of the road.

Anyway - enough moaning like an old man - back to the birding. Driving back along the west coast of the island I was feeling tired, and to be honest, a little miserable having not seen any eagles or otters. Sarah tactfully suggested that we head back to Craignure for the 7pm ferry.

We seemed to be making slow progress back to the boat, so when Sarah mentioned there was a funny looking Buzzard over the hill, I almost didn’t pull over. Lucky I did because two seconds later I was watching a magnificent Golden Eagle through my scope, oblivious to the streams of cars driving passed.

Literally ten minutes down the road another raptor turned out to be my first ever White-tailed Eagle! Again great views were had, especially when it flew out over the loch, then back towards the car. We arrived at the ferry port in good time.

October 14: Day 6
Our last full day in Scotland was spent driving up to Mallaig, where Eider was the only new bird. The areas around yielded both Gray and Common Seals, as well as two Dippers bobbing around at the mouth of a river. From the main road I had fantastic views of a Raven being mobbed by two Hooded Crows, which was great to watch for a while, before we headed to the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.



Unfortunately time ran out on us before we could get to Ardnamurchan Point. We also failed to see any otters despite been in one of the best areas in the UK. What we did see was loads of Red Deer stags, each with a group of hinds. Some were very close to the road side.



For a ‘non-birding’ trip to Scotland I had a fantastic holiday, seeing a good number of Scottish specialities for the first time.

Sarah and I hope to return to this beautiful country very soon to enjoy the great hospitality, delicious food, magnificent scenery – and to find those BLOODY OTTERS!!