June is one of our busiest months for day guiding in Speyside. The summer visitors are all here and there are lots of breeding birds around and lots of wildflowers. One day guide started off with a request to see Crested Tit and Crossbill before going up Cairngorm and looking for mountain species. We began early and managed to hear Crossbills but not see them. We walked around and managed to briefly see and hear a Common Redstart. We wandered an area with smaller pines lookin

May is one of our busiest months for day guiding in Speyside, and for good reason. It is when the wildlife reaches its peak, alongside June. The summer visitors have all returned and the breeding season is well underway. One of my day guides began in an area of birch woodland, looking for Wood Warblers, Tree Pipits and Pied Flycatchers. We managed to see two Wood Warblers carrying nesting material, confirming they had returned to breed in the area this year. Pied Flycatcher w

March has been an amazing month to see wildlife and there are so many highlights to choose from. One day in March I led a day guide that started in Carrbridge and I took my guests to look for Black Grouse. We had initially said we would start at 8am, but after an initial visit to one of the lek sites and not finding anything, I began to have my doubts and suggested a 7am start just to be sure. I hoped that it wouldn’t be too early in the season.

This past summer has been a series of surprises during our Guided Day’s Out. The Summer months always seem a little bit quieter with most birds quietly recovering from raising young. However, with more birds present, provides more food availability for raptors.