It’s now the end of 2025 and it has been an incredible year. We have had lots of sightings of Badgers, Pine Martens, the Scottish Wildcat, including more than one, Wood Mice, Bank Voles, Tawny Owls, Barn Owls, a variety of songbirds as well as Red and Roe Deer. Hopefully 2026 will be just as full of sightings as 2025.

The second last hide update of the year, what a thing to say. Winter is here and there are still Badgers, Pine Martens and the Scottish Wildcat to see as well as a Wood Mouse. It’s definitely colder as everything winds back for the year, but there is still plenty going on. Badgers One night, for the first time in weeks, a Badger came from the left-hand side and sniffed around before going away. Later, the same individual returned and at one point it looked as though it would

Winter can be a quiet time for our Evening Wildlife Watching Hide.

2024 is nearly at an end, so it’s time to give you a roundup of the year’s highlights from our mammal hide in the Cairngorms.

Conifers have a special significance with wildlife and culture and in Scotland the ancient Caledonian Pine Forest

During your visit to the Cairngorms, some of the common species you will see include rabbits and hares.

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...

I'm lucky to live in the Cairngorms National Park and I have positioned my bird feeders in my garden so I can sit and watch them from my...

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...

Winter might be one of the quieter times of year here on Speyside. But one very important attraction exists and one that has been...

Our Badgers are still coming in every night with up to eight at a time on occasions. The cubs have grown up over the winter and in the...

The action has kept going at Speyside Wildlife’s Evening Wildlife Watching Hide over the winter. The Badgers are still coming, enjoying...

The action has kept going at Speyside Wildlife’s Evening Wildlife Watching Hide. The days are getting longer and from the 4th February...