Wildlife watching in Cairngorm

[diggleken]

A great place to go.
Some great advice already in this thread!
If you can slum it, the FC tent/camp site at Loch Morlich is very good - lots of great walks from there into the wilderness, with abundant wildlife close by too, plus the deer herd!
If you are pushed for time, take the cable car up Cairngorm and descend back via a number of good routes, but make sure you are dressed well, its very very cold up there, with lieing snow most of the year, take a map and know how to use it .
A bit early, but there are also a lot of arctic alpine plants there in the flushes, some rarities included.
Ptarmigan venture to about as low as 2000ft, and are best found near jumbled and loose rocky outcrops - they are also quite confiding and will let you get fairly close for spectacular shots (photography that is).
In the forests, keep quiet and go off the trail, at early light and late evening, pine marten and others such as capers are better seen then.
there are also some real ale pubs nowadays inthe highlands - nearest are in Aviemore, which in spite of the tack is a good place to go for info.
there might also be some RSPB evening talks by such as Roy Dennis - ask at the Osprey centre.
If you are really into plants, take in Ben Lawers as you travel up - well worth a trip, Purple Saxifrage should be out about then.
Have a great time!
Ken

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by diggleken

If you can slum it, the FC tent/camp site at Loch Morlich is very good - lots of great walks from there into the wilderness, with abundant wildlife close by too, plus the deer herd!

I think 'reindeer' herd is meant above!

I personally have camped at Coylum Bridge for the last few years. It's much quieter than the Forestry Commision one.

If you are pushed for time, take the cable car up Cairngorm and descend back via a number of good routes,

My understanding is that they don't let you out if you go up on the funicular, except onto a viewing platform. At least that was the original intention to prevent excessive pressure on the plateau from casual day trippers.

In the forests, keep quiet and go off the trail, at early light and late evening, pine marten and others such as capers are better seen then.

The capercaille are suffering a serious decline. It's thought that they fly into deer fences and get killed. It's also thought that because their feeding on young pine needles takes up a lot of the day, the disturbance caused by the increase in visitors in the region prevents them getting enough food. I haven't seen one for years.

Jim

[Richard G.]

Great stuff, thanks folks. Caperwatch is defintely on the cards and the main reason for the trip; will enquire about the Forest Lodge up there too. Most likely a bit too cold for camping though, bit of a fair weather camper on the whole.

Stayed in Aviemore last winter and paid a couple of visits to the Cairngorm Hotel for a few pints of Stag, lovely! The other pub by the river (Bridge?) was closed though, think they'd been flooded.

Will keep fingers crossed for some bright, crispy weather, which might tempt me up onto the plateau in search of the ptarmigan in their winter jackets!

Richard G.

[gess]

Hi Richard

don't have much to add but reading your post has me reminissing!.... my holidays there in my much younger days (Aviemore, Cairngorms and surrounding areas) were the best......... "gods country" my Dad called it ( he was a Scot! )

Gess

[PMG]

I'm with eeyore on the highland wildlife zoo - went in for the first (and last time) a couple of springs back cos I wanted to see a live capper. The cages are way too small - there is absolutely no need whatsoever to have creatures in cages so small - I was furious Do they do it so that the animals are constantly on view and that allows them to charge an exhorbitant entry fee? I suspect so.

But the animals are stressed out with humans walking round and hemming them in - they have no where private to retreat to - it must be hell - esp to the wild cats who hate confinement and human proximity. The pine martin female was apparently in season and the male was being kept from her - so he was running round a circuit in his cage - breathless - wheezing he was so worked up - the circuit should have been 3 foot deep and his paws ought to have been bleeding. Starting off I photographed the wild cats thro the wires quite easily - same with capper - then got upset watching the pine martin, refused to visit the wolves at all and finally lost it completely with the snowy owl pair in a small cage at the top of the site - talk about mental cruelty - the female was avoiding eye contact with humans - she had the worst 1,000 yard stare I've ever seen on any living thing .............

Its the sort of place that makes me want to break in at the dead of night and let everything go free...........

Aside from the above horrible experience I love the Cairngorms and have got into the habit of going every spring, end of March using up annual leave. Last year our days off ran into 1st and 2nd of April so we were able to get up and go on the first capper watch at Loch Garton at 5am on the 1st. I saw my first ever live capper and it was the first for the hide in the 2008 season It was very funny - I had squeezed into the far right corner after asking a chap if he minded if I shared his viewpoint and before he could answer I had slid in - everyone was looking out front - which I couldn't see - and the male capper - bless him - came walking out from the far right - a bit like the whiskey ads - da da da da dadada da I casually announced 'Isn't that a male over there' and the hide erupted and almost tipped up! Hahahahaha!!

The cafe on the right of the road up Cairngorm has feeders out and gets red squirrels and crested tits. And I've been told the Rothiemurchus Garden Centre on the way to Loch an Eileen has feeders and a tea room where you can sit and watch.

I can recommend speyside wildlifes night viewing experience for badgers and pine martins - we've had some good times there - but this year we dipped out twice in one week and will have a complimentary visit in 2009!

I have pics in my wab Gallery of pine martin, badger, red squirrel, brambling, siskin and cresties all from Cairngorms ..........

Pauline

[Richard G.]

That's valuable feedback Pauline, looks like we'll be giving the HWP a miss then.

Just had a quick look at your Gallery, blindingly good! Will definitely find more time to look through the rest of your pics. I’m guessing you spend quite a bit of time on this particular hobby then.

Richard G.

[PMG]

Originally Posted by Richard G.

That's valuable feedback Pauline, looks like we'll be giving the HWP a miss then.

Just had a quick look at your Gallery, blindingly good! Will definitely find more time to look through the rest of your pics. I’m guessing you spend quite a bit of time on this particular hobby then.

Richard G.

Wild horses wouldn't get me to go in again - a large pair of bolt-croppers would prove very tempting tho!

The snow buntings are relatively easy on the main skiing car park at Cairngorm - our first trip out after arriving and settling in is to this car park to sprinkle sunflower seed around the benches set just above the parking! By the end of a week or fortnight you can have a good little bunch of snow bunting hanging around a few feet from your camera!

The same with the Loch Garton car park - we put food out there when we arrive and attract stuff in as the holiday progresses (usually its before the RSPB staff start hanging their feeders out). Same on site (Coylum Bridge) we hang nut bags and sprinkle sunflower seed and end up with a big flock of chaffinch (and one brambling this year!). We've had cresties 2ft off the van windows - same with red squirrel.

Next time we are going into accommodation (taking the mum 'outlaw'!!) so we may not be quite so lucky as other years tho there is a garden and we will put stuff out as soon as we arrive!

One morning while going to the documented black grouse lek towards ?Grantown? (not a whisper - perhaps I wasn't in the right place but I went to where the book said?) we found a freshly dead roe buck beside the road. Ian insisted on grappling it into the campervan - and it filled the floorspace (have you ever tried to get to the sink and kettle whilst stepping over a dead deer?) Ian then man-handled it out into the forest in a quiet spot and a couple of days later buzzard and raven had found it - but we didn't manage to photograph them - maybe this next time if some poor deer gets unlucky.....

And yes - we do spend a lot of time at photography - almost as much time as I spend on here

Pauline

[Richard G.]

Originally Posted by PMG

... we found a freshly dead roe buck beside the road. Ian insisted on grappling it into the campervan - and it filled the floorspace (have you ever tried to get to the sink and kettle whilst stepping over a dead deer?) Ian then man-handled it out into the forest in a quiet spot and a couple of days later buzzard and raven had found it - but we didn't manage to photograph them - maybe this next time if some poor deer gets unlucky.....

That's a great story, the lengths you'll go to get a good shot, ha!

Mind you, might have been worth getting the haunches off it first for the freezer, or maybe that's just me!

Richard G.

[PMG]

Originally Posted by Richard G.

That's a great story, the lengths you'll go to get a good shot, ha!

Mind you, might have been worth getting the haunches off it first for the freezer, or maybe that's just me!

Richard G.

I don't think even one haunch would fit in the campervans little fridge - and I'm not sure I could carve a beastie up ........... I'm not that keen on red meat anymore - a fresh turkey tho would be a different prospect

Pauline

[earthdragon64]

I've lived in Aviemore for 15 and a half years, I've never been to the HWP and I will never set foot in it after the Wolf cull.

What everyone else has said is good advice, but I'll just add a little to it. if you do walk round Loch an Eilein, don't miss Loch Gamhna, it's better for Crested Tit and water fowl than Loch an Eilein itself. In summer it's also pretty good for Dragonflies and Damselflies, but April is a bit early unless the weather is really great.

Craigellachie NNR is well worth a visit, there are usually a pair of Peregrine nesting on the cliffs, loads of typical forest birds, there are a couple of Lochans with ducks, usually Mallard. If you get higher up, you may see mountain Hare. The view from the top across the valley to the Cairngorms is stunning and well worth the walk. There are often Buzzard, Sparrowhawks and Kestrel around as well.

Another couple of places, are on the A95 from Aviemore to Grantown. About 2 miles north of Aviemore is a small loch called Avielochan. There are a couple of laybys on the left just before you get to the loch, which is on the right. You sometimes get a couple of Slavonian Grebe, but I don't think they have bred there yet. Also there are ducks, geese and gulls there.

A bit further along the road, pull into the car park at Laggantygown Cemetery, instead of walking down the path to the main part of the cemetery, turn away from it to a little path through the trees. This takes you to Loch Vaa within a couple of minutes, again there are geese and ducks there.

If you go further along the A95, then turn off towards Boat of Garten, there is a little carpark on the right, about half way along. If you park there and walk down the path, back the way you arrived, there is a view point across to a flooded area on the local farm. There can be a surprising amount of birds on that seasonal pond, including Slavonian Grebe.

Uath Lochans in Inshriach forest is a great place to see Scottish Crossbill, Crested Tit and Red Squirrels, you can find directions to it on the Forestry Commission website. Again it's a great place to walk, not just round the Lochans, but if you walk to the top of the hill above it, about a 30 minute walk, the views north across Loch Insh and the Spey are fantastic.