Highland Wildlife and Birdwatch Safaris, Guided wildlife excursions, Aviemore, Scotland
Highland Wildlife and Birdwatch Safaris, Guided wildlife excursions, Aviemore, Scotland Highland Wildlife and Birdwatch Safaris, Guided wildlife excursions, Aviemore, Scotland

Monday, June 30, 2014

June 2014 was a pretty decent month for wildlife-watching in the Cairngorms National Park weather-wise, with plenty of warm, sunny days interspersed with a few cool and drizzly ones, which all helped to maintain the lush, green appearance of the spectacular highland scenery. The wild flowers are approaching their colourful best now, and the heather is turning purple ,with lots of butterflies on the wing, and with nearly 20 hours of usable birding daylight for those with the stamina to attempt it, bird species day-lists were regularly in the 50's or even 60's.  Just about every bird species appears to have youngsters now, and with no extreme or prolonged bad weather encountered, hopes are high for a good survival rate.
Mammal species day-lists ranged between 6 and 10, with early starts usually providing the best sightings.
I am proud to say that all the pictures shown below were taken either by myself or my clients on my safaris during June.

Wildlife highlights included:

Local speciality bird species seen regularly this month included:  Osprey, Black Grouse (early in the month only), Red Grouse, Ring Ouzel (up to mid month), Crested Tit, Red-Throated Diver, Black-Throated Diver, Slavonian Grebe, Dipper, Goldeneye and Goosander, with just a few sightings of Crossbill, Capercaillie and Golden Eagle.

Mammal species seen this month included: Rabbit, Brown Hare, Mountain Hare, Roe Deer, Red Deer, Fallow Deer, Reindeer, Mountain Goat, Stoat ,Bank Vole, the Moray Firth Dolphins and coastal Seals, and a couple of lucky early morning glimpses of Pine Marten.

Osprey is probably the 'star bird' of the summer months up here (see pic above) - with my safari parties being fortunate enough to see them plunge-dive spectacularly to catch a fish or delivering a fish to the nest on a number of occasions, and great views of the adult birds and their rapidly growing young in the nest...

Our local Black Grouse rather surprisingly, continued to lek well into June, with a pre-4am arrival giving us the opportunity to see the amazing 'Blackcock tango' for the last time this year.. (see pic above)

Red Grouse were not too difficult to find on suitable areas of heather moorland, and if you could spot the heads of the adults above the heather, you then usually got to see their large families of fast-growing youngsters too... (see pic above)

Ring Ouzels showed well in upland habitats near their nesting and feeding areas early in the month (see pic above), but became noticeably more elusive as the month progressed and they began to roam further afield....

Crested Tits actually became a little easier to see this month, as the family groups foraged together through our local Caledonian Pine Forests (see pic above by Malcy Fincham), though it should be noted that you really need to know their distinctive song and calls in order to be able to find them....

Crossbills  were generally a bit elusive, though one day of serious 'forest bashing' eventually provided us with some decent views... (see pic above)

Both Red-Throated Divers and Black-Throated Divers in their dapper summer plumage, were seen regularly on suitable secluded local lochs, though we generally had our best views on calmer days, with no ripple on the water, and early and late in the day, when human disturbance was it it's lowest....

Slavonian Grebes, also in their beautiful summer plumage, were seen and enjoyed regularly by my safari parties on their favoured quiet lochans, though we could not confirm any much-needed breeding success as it appeared that several of their nests had been abandoned due to predation, disturbance or flooding.....

Golden Eagle is not usually an easy bird to see in the summer months, as they have so many hours of daylight in which to hunt. It is just a case of putting yourself in a likely site , and hoping you get lucky... fortunately we did on several occasions, with the best encounter seeing us observe one bird stalking young feral Mountain Goats along a ridge!!

Capercaillie can be a very difficult bird to see outside of lekking season, and for most of the month this proved to be the case.... but the final week saw us get lucky with two all too brief sightings of females with youngsters....

June is probably THE best month to visit the high tops in search of the mountain species, as it is about the only month that they should all definitely be on territory and the weather is usually good enough to attempt it! So the 12th saw a small party of us visit a local summit, where, after a fair bit of searching, we were pleased to get good views of Ptarmigan (see pic above) and Dotterel (see Malcy Fincham's pic below). Though the Snow Buntings managed to elude us....


Other 'good' birds seen regularly this month, include a few species that seem to breed more commonly in northern and upland areas, like Golden Plover (see pic above), Wood Warbler, and Spotted Flycatcher (see pic below) , and although I am lucky to see them regularly, they are often a good 'year-tick' for my guests from further south.....

Another bird which is often a tricky 'year-tick' to get is the Woodcock - it's crepuscular nature, means that all most birders really ever get to see is a dusk silhouette view of one 'roding' above a wood, or a brief glimpse of one fleeing the roadside leaf litter on a forest track at dawn... so we were amazed and delighted when one walked across a remote woodland track and then posed briefly under the shadow of a tree for a few seconds in the middle of the day! (see pic above). To say I was pleased with the pic I got is possibly the understatement of the year!!

June is also probably the best month in which to visit a coastal seabird colony, so taking advantage of a favourable weather forecast, we took a day trip up to the north-west coast to the wonderfully remote and beautiful  Handa Island. Even the short ferry crossing from Tarbet gave us super close-up views of Seals, Black Guillemot and Red-Throated Diver, and once on the island, after our welcome talk by the SWT wardens, we went on to see  Snipe, Red Grouse, Wheatears, Skylarks, and Arctic and Great Skuas galore nesting on the moors. Once at the impressively high cliffs and coastal stacks, we were treated to the unique sights, sounds (and smells!) of good numbers of  Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots, and yes, everybody's favourite - Puffins! (see pic above)

Dolphins are always high on most people's mammal wish-list when visiting coastal areas, and we are lucky to have probably the best land-based site in the UK nearby at Chanonry Point on the Black Isle, north of Inverness. A visit at the right stage of the tide on the 15th gave us superb close-up views of these entertaining and charismatic animals... (see pic above)

So it looks like June 2014 can go down as yet another great month for wildlife-watching in and around the Cairngorms National Park, with the wide range of habitats visited producing a splendid variety of birds and animals, and all in wonderfully scenic surroundings.....













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