The action has kept going at Speyside Wildlife’s Evening Wildlife Watching Hide.
The Pine Martens have been coming in recently, sitting on the platform feeding on the bait laid out for them. Both the male and the female have made appearances and they cause huge excitement among the guests. Then when they leave, they climb the branches and show off their agility. For some guests it was a dream come true.
The Badgers are coming in every night, much earlier than they were. The cubs have grown up considerably and look much more 'thickset' than they were when I first knew them. They're also much better behaved - they've come a long way from being the hyperactive, impolite cubs they were, to the much better-behaved individuals they are now. They're not always well behaved of course; they still squabble occasionally but it's nothing like what they were before.
There are still Wood Mice and Bank Voles that appear and as the nights darken, I've showed guests other wonders, mainly in the night sky. There are star constellations like the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) to be looked at. But for some the highlight was getting to see Jupiter through a scope. Through the scope they could see two reddish bands and its four moons: Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, always spewing lava as it's torn between the tidal pull of Jupiter and the neighbouring moon Europa. Europa is a moon covered in ice and rumoured to have a liquid ocean. Ganymede is the largest of the moons and on the outer edge is Callisto, a moon that is pockmarked with craters from all the meteorites it's been hit by.
If you would like your chance to see our nocturnal visitors head to our website and book your place today.