Highland Wildlife & Birdwatch Safaris

July 2018 saw the near-drought conditions of the previous two months continue, and the vast majority of the month was warm, sunny and dry, with just a few cooler showery days....Great for us humans out wildlife watching, but... in extreme conditions, as well as winners there will also be losers..... and although most bird and mammal species seem to be coping, the species reliant on damp ground and worms are definitely struggling, and in some cases abandoning their usual haunts and relocating to other areas in search of food...whilst our rivers are at record low levels, meaning that the Atlantic Salmon must be struggling to make their way upstream to the spawning grounds....
However, it was a very enjoyable and reasonably successful month for wildlife sightings, and although the days are shortening slightly now, this far north there are still around 18 hours of usable daylight.
Full-day safari bird species day lists dropped a little, down into the 40's, as some of our wader species moved away from their upland breeding territories to the coasts, and things have definitely quietened down , as just about every bird species seems to have successfully raised and fledged youngsters now.

Mammal day lists varied between 4 and 9, depending on the length of day, and variety of habitats visited...with early starts generally producing more and closer sightings, with again, many species seen with youngsters..
With plenty of sunshine, the heather starting to turn a beautiful vivid purple, and the wild flowers and butterflies at their most abundant, the Cairngorms National Park really was a beautiful and unspoilt place to be, and my safari clients, from all around the world, including Canada, USA, Australia, Norway, Italy , Holland and all over the UK certainly seemed to enjoy themselves.....as did I......

Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve

To give you an idea of what you may realistically hope to see if you are planning a future July visit yourself, I hope the following more detailed information, illustrated with photos taken this month (and in previous July's) in and around the Cairngorms National Park  (and occasionally beyond) by myself,  my friends or my safari clients will help - clicking on the picture enlarges it to full screen.

Local speciality and upland bird species seen regularly throughout the month included:  Osprey,  Red Grouse, Slavonian Grebe, Red-Throated Diver, Black-Throated Diver, Goldeneye and Dipper.
We also  enjoyed some regular good views of Red Kite, a few reasonable sightings of Crested Tit, and  a couple of fleeting glimpses of Scottish Crossbill, and one of a Merlin, though sadly Golden Eagle, White-Tailed Eagle, Capercaillie and Black Grouse (not unusually) were not seen at all on my safaris this month....

Mammals seen regularly locally during the month included: Red Squirrel, Rabbit, Brown Hare, Roe Deer, Red Deer, Reindeer and Mountain Goat, with just a couple of sightings of  Sika Deer and Mountain Hare and one brief glimpse of a Stoat....

Adult Osprey delivering nest material

Adult female Osprey with her chicks

Our local Ospreys stole the show again this month, often being voted as 'Bird of the day' by my safari clients, with the adult birds seen fishing, delivering fish and nesting material, and feeding and encouraging the fast growing 'scaly' looking , orange-eyed youngsters to take their 'maiden flights', and by late-month they had indeed fledged and were seen perched and flying for the first time.. I can therefore highly recommend July as THE month for Osprey watching and photography in this area...

Adult male Red Grouse

Young Red Grouse

Red Grouse too are always popular with my safari parties, as being a bird of largely uninhabited upland moors, most of my clients do not have them close to home. We, however, are fortunate to have lots of suitable heather moorland in this area, and throughout the month we enjoyed good close up views of families of up to 6 of these very characterful and beautifully marked birds, though with the 'glorious 12th' rapidly approaching... I suspect they may not be quite so obliging next month...

Adult Slavonian (Horned) Grebe with two well-grown chicks

Slavonian (Horned) Grebe, one of our rarest and surely one of our most beautiful British breeding birds, with the UK being at the very western limits of it's breeding range , have often struggled to breed successfully in this area in recent years,  but as I reported last month,  it was great news for our one 'local' pair this year, and it was great to see the two youngsters growing rapidly and learning to dive for fish this month.

Red-Throated Diver

Divers (Loons), being very rare in summer south of here, and looking resplendent in their dapper summer plumage are always popular with my safari clients, and we were fortunate enough to get lots of good views of both Red-Throated and Black-Throated , often with their rapidly growing youngsters on their favoured local lochs throughout the month. It should be noted however, that they are rarely seen close to the shore, can be difficult to find in 'choppy' conditions, and are easily disturbed by non wildlife-friendly tourists dog-walking, swimming and boating etc, so the less windy days and early morning starts in search of them usually gave us our closest sightings....

Black-Throated Divers

Crested Tit

Crested Tits were seen reasonably frequently on our walks through Caledonian pine forests, often in family parties, though I must stress again, that they can be very elusive in the spring and summer months, and knowing their distinctive rippling trills is a huge advantage in helping you to see these very 'flitty' little local specialities....which are incredibly difficult to photograph by the way...


It was a similar story with Crossbills too, with the majority of our sightings being of the rather frustrating 'fly-over' variety, with them only being identified by their characteristic 'jip' 'jip' calls as they flew between different parts of the forests...but we did get lucky on one occasion when a family group perched briefly, allowing the rare treat of views through a scope ...though a photo escaped me.. aaargh!

Male Ring Ouzel

Ring Ouzels were seen in upland habitats near their nesting and feeding areas, at least early in the month, especially near the few damp areas, but became noticeably more elusive as the month progressed as they and their recently-fledged young began to roam even further afield, and it appeared that they may well have vacated this area and headed south for warmer climes by the end of the month....

Goldeneyes only breed in the UK in northern Scotland, and their numbers have increased greatly in recent years, mainly due to the RSPB providing nest boxes on trees around most local lochs, and we got to see many large families of these very attractive little ducks this month...

Dipper

Dipper sightings were much less frequent than normal this month, with the birds seemingly quite mobile up and down the very low level rivers, on some days we saw none, and on other days we saw one on each river we visited! Which just goes to show that although local knowledge and experience are important, sometimes you need a bit of luck too......

Eagles are probably hardest to see in mid-summer (in this area at least), as the birds are still concentrating on fledging young, and have so many hours of daylight in which to hunt, and sadly we didn't manage a single decent confirmed sighting this month, only a couple of very distant "could have been" views...


Still on raptors, we did however manage to see  Red Kite, Common Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk regularly during the month... we also enjoyed the very rare treat of being in the right place at the right time to witness young Peregrines being taught to hunt by their parents, and we also had one brief glimpse of a Merlin hunting low over a moorland...

Snow Bunting

Ptarmigan

Dotterel

July is 'last chance saloon' for seeing all 3 of our mountain top species in one trip, as the Dotterel often depart in early August..and although days of suitable weather (dry, calm and clear) were reasonably frequent, on the couple of occasions we took to the hills to look for them , using my Cairngorm Mountain Birdwatching Guide qualification to allow us to use the funicular railway and then exit the (usually) closed system for a walk up to the summit, only a few Snow Buntings were seen, with the Ptarmigan and Dotterel seemingly having deserted the very dry mountain tops, presumably for more productive feeding areas elsewhere....but I thought I would include a few photos from previous July sightings, to give you an idea of what is possible in  more 'normal' conditions...

Other 'good' birds seen or reported locally in Badenoch and Strathspey this month included Honey Buzzard, Nuthatch (very rare this far north), and Spotted Flycatcher.

July mammal sightings...

Red Squirrel

The award for 'mammal of the day' as voted for by my safari clients, frequently went to that ever popular pine cone chomping, peanut-munching forest dwelling local speciality, the cute and charismatic Red Squirrel, who can usually be relied upon to appear for an easy feast at my favourite forest feeding stations.....though we also had a few 'random' sightings whilst on forest walks....often being alerted to their presence by the sound of falling pine cones....

Red Deer hinds with their young

Red Deer were regularly seen in local upland glens, usually in large same-sex herds, the stags happily feeding and seemingly relaxing, and the hinds with their fast-growing young always nearby ....with many of my safari guests from far-away lands putting these iconic beasts high up on their 'wish-lists'....

Mountain Goat by Norman Green

In the same upland glens, we also had regular good views of  large groups of another scarce and very localised mammal, the feral Mountain Goat..  interesting animals, that come in a wide variety of colours, from white, through grey and brown to black, or sometimes a mixture of all of these...

Sika Deer

Sika Deer , also known as the spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species native to much of East Asia, but they were introduced to many country estates in the UK in the 1800's and we are fortunate to have a few in this area, and we saw small families of them a couple of times this month..

Mountain Hares are definitely at their 'most difficult to see' time of year now...their mottled brown and grey coats providing near-perfect camouflage among the rocks in their mountainside homes...and so it proved ... with our sightings being limited to only a couple of distant glimpses..

Brown Hare

Brown Hares however, proved to be much more obliging, especially early in the morning, with slow drives through quiet farmland, using my vehicle as a mobile hide giving us some decent views....


Other wildlife...



Butterflies of several different types were seen regularly, with the more common species now being joined by our 'local speciality' the Scotch Argus towards the end of the month...

Meadow Brown

Common Blue

Scotch Argus

So my 'sum-up' for this month is ... although the bird breeding season is almost over, July is a pretty decent month to see a good selection of birds, animals and butterflies in this area, with no need for a really early start, and it's also good for a mountain-top adventure, or a trip to a seabird colony with (usually) fairly good weather, and all still with plenty of daylight hours....Though I must confess that I always tend to feel just a little sad at the end of every July , as I know that many of our summer visiting birds are soon to vacate our area and fly south to warmer climes as summer turns to early autumn next month.....

If you think you know someone who may enjoy a taste of what I do, why not treat them to a safari gift certificate. They make a thoughtful and imaginative present, are available for any amount and are valid at any time within a year from date of purchase....

Glenmore Forest