Wildlife Watching

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The Northern Highlands offer some of the most beautiful and unspoilt scenery in Britain, and is home to rich and varied wildlife.

The Moray Firth area has easily viewed populations of bottlenose dolphins, common and grey seals, and roe, red and sika deer.  You could also be fortunate and see some of our other more elusive mammals including otter, red squirrel, pine marten, and wildcat.

This area is also a superb location for bird watching with osprey and red kites in particular easily seen, both frequent visitors to the lochan and fields around Braemoray. We believe there are around 30 ospreys frequenting the Cromarty Firth area from early April until September, and they can be seen on most inland lochs as well as fishing over the firth itself.

In addition, golden eagle, hen harrier, peregrine, merlin, short and long-eared owls, capercaillie, black grouse, crested tit, Scottish crossbill, black and red-throated divers, Slavonian                 Chanonry Point          grebe and many more birds of note can all be seen locally.
Fyrish hill behind Braemoray is designated as a Special
Protection Area for capercaillie.

An excursion to the West Coast or North East to Caithness will give you the opportunity to visit some of the best seabird colonies in the UK where you can see puffins, guillemot, black guillemot, razorbills, gannets, arctic and great skua and many more species.  Also on the West Coast is the opportunity to see white-tailed eagle or to take a boat trip to look for otters or marine mammals including whales, dolphins and porpoises.

An hour to the South and you're in Speyside where a visit to the Cairngorm National Nature Reserve might turn up dotterel, snow bunting and ptarmigan. Or you can visit Abernethy Forest and look for capercaillie, crested tit and crossbills.

Below are links to some of our local wildlife watching operators and nature reserves:

Puffins - Handa Island      

• Dolphin and Seal Centre, North Kessock  - marine mammal information

• Ecoventures - dolphin watching boat trips

• Dolphin Ecosse – dolphin watching boat trips

• Dolphin Trips Avoch – dolphin watching boat trips

• Handa Island Nature Reserve – nesting seabird colonies

• North Coast Marine Adventures, John O’Groats – seal and seabird watching boat trips

• Sea.fari, Skye – seal and seabird watching boat trips

• Moray Firth Wildlife Centre - marine mammal information

• Guideliner - Hebridean Wildlife Cruises - a holiday in itself, why not combine a week of fishing with a week of wildlife watching?

• Local RSPB Reserves - includes information on:

Abernethy Forest – nesting ospreys, red squirrels, crossbill, crested tits, capercaillie.

Corrimony - common sandpipers, greenshanks and curlews, occasional red-throated divers and ospreys.

Culbin Sands - sea ducks off shore in winter.

Forsinard – hen harrier, golden plovers, dunlins and merlins.

Loch Garten – breeding ospreys, crested tit, crossbills, red squirrel.

Insh Marshes - breeding wildfowl and waders in summer, whooper swans in the winter.

Loch Ruthven - Slavonian grebes, red-throated divers.

Nigg Bay – large numbers of waders such as bar-tailed godwits and knots, geese and duck in winter; ospreys fishing in the bay in summer.

Udale Bay - waders, geese and duck in winter; up to 5000 wigeon in autumn; ospreys fishing in the bay in summer.

Bottlenose Dolphins Chanonry Point	Common Seal Cromarty Firth
Sparrowhawk Black Isle	Kittiwakes Handa Island
Red Deer Strathconon	Red Deer Strathconon