Happy new year from everyone at Speyside Wildlife and of course the wildlife here in the Cairngorms National Park! Thank you to all the support from opening our new wildlife hide next year, we hope to welcome you all to the hide this year. The wildlife hasn’t stopped over the festive period and we are going to look at the activity over the past few weeks here at the evening wildlife hide.
Pine Marten prints in fresh snow
Badger prints in the snow
We have been in a winter wonderland, with snow lying across most of the area since Christmas. The mammals that built up their fat reserves during the autumn have been putting them to use, a bit quieter with only one or two Badgers showing most evenings. Each fresh snowfall has given us the chance to walk around the site and see who has been during the night. Following their tracks from the hide to foraging the nearby area.
Badger on Night camera
Pine Marten on the night camera this week
The Pine Martens have also been making a few visits, which has been great to see. It can be hard to dig and find food for mammals this time of year, especially small rodents that Pine Martens will prey on, as they hide under the snow.
We hope that 2021 will give you the chance to visit our new facility if you didn’t manage to visit the area last year and meet some of the mammals that we see and hear. We will be continuing to improve the viewing platform providing you with fortnightly blog posts on here, and live videos over on our Facebook page.