By Anthony Spicer.
If there is one place in the UK that is remote and also breath taking it must surely be the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. It has always been an area that has fascinated me and one that I have been lucky enough to visit before. It has a great range of wildlife; from mountain specialists such as ptarmigan, dotterel and snow bunting, to birds of prey such as golden and white-tailed eagle, and forest species such as red squirrels and crested tit. If you are lucky enough you may also spot feral goats on the hill sides along with red deer. It truly does have a wide variety for any wildlife enthusiast visiting.
One species in particular everyone loves to see when visiting somewhere like the Cairngorms are red squirrels. These delightful fluffy mammals can be seen in a variety of places and often they appear at random when you perhaps are least expecting it! So, we headed to a known feeding site in the hope they would appear and no sooner had we sat down one appeared at the tops of the pine trees! It worked its way down to the provided nut boxes and happily posed for photographs, throughout our stay two more came and joined us, which in turn meant there was a bit of chasing up and down the trees. As we head into winter the red squirrels coat will grow thicker and their tails will become bushier, as well as growing ear tufts on the top of their ears sometimes up to 3cm long! These tufts will then disappear over the warm summer months.
Another specie which can only be found in the Caledonian pine forests of the Cairngorms are crested tits. These birds are amazing to watch and especially at this time of year. On our previous visit two years ago, they were very active on the feeders provided at RSPB Loch Garten when the weather was slightly colder. However, this time it was great to watch a different type of behaviour unfold. Rather than being on the feeders, they were constantly going up and down the trees looking for invertebrates to eat. Caterpillars are their main source of food but they will also seek out pine seeds, spiders and moth larvae. They also have an incredible hair style much like a punk rock mohawk!
One area we visited for the first time was the cairngorm mountains located just outside Aviemore. With a summit elevation of 4,084 ft, Cairn Gorm is the seventh highest mountain in British Isles. Driving up the long, steep road past the 2 lower car parks we parked in the cairngorm mountain car park and headed off on a walk along one of the footpaths. Sadly, we didn’t get very far and had to head back towards the car due to poor weather creeping up in the distance. However, we were soon very glad we did! As we got back to the car to dodge the bad weather we turned round and saw an almighty bird of prey in the sky, it was huge! To be honest it didn’t take long to ID it based on the sheer size of it, but looking through our binoculars as it came right over the top of us confirmed it to be a white-tailed eagle! The largest bird of prey in Britain. It was truly spectacular, with a wing span of up to 2.5 metres it just couldn’t be anything else. As it slowly drifted off into the distance after coming so close to us, we made our way back down the long steep road, thinking how fortunate we were that we headed back to the car when we did.
As we headed back down the M6 towards home we couldn’t stop thinking how lucky we were to visit such an amazing place especially after everything that has happened over the past 18 months. We will definitely be returning!
Click here to learn more about visiting the Cairngorms National Park.
Our Red Squirrel Range…
10% of every purchase from our red squirrel range is donated to the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. Here is some of our much loved range.
