Speyside Wildlife October Day Guide Blog
- Harris Brooker
- Oct 27
- 3 min read
October arrived and when it did, Autumn began, in the Cairngorm’s National Park. The leaves were either turning orange or had fallen off. The Ospreys had gone south to Africa, so had the Swallows, Sand and House Martins. The Black-throated Divers and Slavonian Grebes had returned to the coast for the winter. But there was still plenty happening within the National Park and before long we’re bound to get more Autumn visitors.
One thing that was happening was that there were more Jays about. I’d been hearing their pterodactyl screeches and in Inshriach Forest I was seeing plenty flying about with their blue wing patches and white rumps, probably looking for acorns to stash for Winter. Crossbills were seen too, flying high and ‘chipping’ as they went, without stopping in any treetops for a better look. There were Woodpigeons too, trying hard to look like raptors, but not managing to fool me.
At Milton Loch, I was surprised at the low numbers of wildfowl, but maybe that will increase with time. There were, however, Mallards and Teal and they could be seen dabbling in the water. The surrounding woodland had Coal Tits, Blue Tits and Great Tits as well as Chaffinches.
One bright morning, I took a friend into the Findhorn Valley, and we were hoping to see raptors, particularly Golden Eagles. We drove along the road to Coignafearn and saw Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges on the way over. Both birds are reared for sport there, but it was especially good to watch the partridges which are an introduced species and can be difficult to see in most places, but here there is a decent chance of them. I explained to him that their world range is tiny, being native to only France and Spain with them being introduced to the UK. As we drove along, we made our first stop at a place that overlooks some fields and plantations and to my surprise it was quiet. We did manage to see two Grey Herons flying along the River Findhorn and a Buzzard was seen in the air briefly. I was surprised not to see more Buzzards and no Red Kites, which I found especially strange. I heard what sounded like roaring in the distance, possibly from some Red Deer rutting. With nothing further to see, we drove on further and saw a Red Squirrel at the side of the road as it ran up a tree. My friend was delighted, because he’d never seen a wild Red Squirrel before.
Then we came to the Coignafearn car park and it was packed to a degree that I’d never seen before. It was so packed that cars were parked in two rows and I had to turn around them to get a space. After a while, a raptor was seen over the hills behind the car park. It was really close and when I trained my scope on it, its identity was clear. A Golden Eagle. Several people were there and it caused tremendous excitement. It flew away over the hills and was gone.
Into the afternoon, we drove to Dalnahaitnach and drove through excellent pine forest. We stopped the car and walked back along the road. We managed to see Coal Tits and Blue Tits and then the familiar trilling of a Crested Tit was heard. There appeared to be several as there were calls coming from more than one place. Then a bird settled in a tree next to us and hopped about furtively until eventually showing itself and it was indeed a Crested Tit. I explained to my friend that while Crested Tits are widespread in Europe, within the British Isles they lived only in Scotland, with only the occasional vagrant in England. The Crested Tit was very active and didn’t stay still, although there were moments when it could be seen clearly with its grey and white face, black collar and brown body.
Finally, we decided to head up to Lochindorb to look for Red Grouse, but had no luck, though we did get some Mallards and a Tufted Duck out on the loch. Afterwards we decided to call it a day. A very successful day out.
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