Following the recent re-introduction of Beavers to the Cairngorms National Park we wanted to take this month to focus on this incredible

Our monthly sightings update from our Evening Mammal Hide near Aviemore in the Cairngorms.

At home in Speyside and Cairngorms, It’s an odd time of year for birding. The adults are hiding away, growing new feathers and taking....

It is by far, my favourite thing to do other than birdwatching. Gardening! It may not be everybody’s idea of fun....

Badger Sightings The cold period that kept the Badgers inside their setts has long since passed. There’s still eight of them and the...

Badger Sightings The Badgers continue to come in and feed at our hide near Aviemore, now that the winter has passed it is warmer and that...

One of our rarest and most elusive mammals, the Scottish Wildcat, epitomises the Scottish Highlands. Sometimes referred to as the Highland Tiger, they are about the same size as a domestic cat but bulkier. They have greyish fur with black stripes and a thick club-like tail, with three to five black bands on it, with no line running down. The Wildcat is said to look more ‘serious’, which emphasises its wild nature, far from the comparative gentleness of domestic cats. Contrary

Badgers A trickle of normality is returning following the end of winter at our hide near Aviemore in the Cairngorms. The Badgers have...

This blog focuses on finches, a group of colourful songbirds known for their diet of seeds and insects. It will discuss how to recognise them, their sizes, habitats and sometimes their relationship with humans. These can all be found in Speyside, within the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Chaffinch One of the commonest finches in Speyside. The male has an orange breast, which looks duller in the wintertime, but brighter in summer. Its wings have white patches, the exten

Our local Badgers Winter is a quieter time at the hide for Badgers. Stormy and cold weather can sometimes keep them at bay and when they...

In this blog post we’ll talk about the five species of tit that occur in Speyside. All of them can occur on bird feeders here, but one of...

There are currently three species of crossbill recognised in Speyside: the Common Crossbill, the Scottish Crossbill and the Parrot Crossbill, with around six species recognised in the world. Members of the finch family, they have bills which their mandibles crossover. This is an adaptation for extracting the seeds from pinecones. Their genus name is Loxia, the Ancient Greek, meaning ‘Crosswise’. The crossbills use their bills to prize apart the cones segments and they have ba

Autumn in the Cairngorms is a good time to view the mammals from the hide, they now have their thick winter coats and come in to feed and...

The air in the Cairngorms is noticeably colder, the days are becoming shorter and nature is slowing down. In the past few weeks, I have...

Here is our monthly update from our hide near Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Our Local Badger Clan - There are at least eight Badgers in our...

In this blog post we’ll talk about the four most regular owl species found in Speyside and in most of Britain. Because most of these are nocturnal, owls are something of an enigma. So let’s broaden our understand of these charismatic, elusive birds. Tawny Owl ( Strix Aluco ) Tawny Owl (Photo Credit: Speyside Wildlife) This is the owl that makes the classic ‘twit-ti-woo’ noise. What you might not know is that only Tawny Owls make this sound and even then, only the males. The f

Here is our monthly update from our Evening Mammal Hide in the Cairngorms, near Aviemore. Badgers - They’ve been coming in every day...

Red Deer ( Cervus elaphus ) are the largest species of deer in the UK and its largest land animal. They can stand up to one metre thirty-seven centimetres at the shoulder and for males the nose to tail length is just over two metres. They live in the forests, moorlands and mountains of Scotland and other parts of the UK. In the summertime they are more social and feed on grasses, sedges and rushes. They will also browse young trees, especially Rowan ( Sorbus aucuparia ). In t

Here is our monthly update from our Evening Mammal Hide in the Cairngorms, near Aviemore. Badgers - The Badgers have continued to amuse...

Common Buzzard (Buteo Buteo) - One of our commonest raptors and often mistaken for the Golden Eagle, it has been dubbed the ‘Tourist’s...