BFOR THEIRDS A visit to the Scottish Highlands offers one of the best bird-
and wildlife-watching experiences in the UK, with the promise of rare encounters with unique species. Words: Stephen Moss
The Scottish Highlands — especially the Cairngorms National Park and Spey Valley — has a reputation as one of the best places to go birdwatching in the UK. This stunning national park is home to species that are either rare or completely absent elsewhere in the UK, including the majestic golden eagle, elusive capercaillie, tiny crested tit and three high mountain specialists: ptarmigan, dotterel and snow bunting. These birds aren’t always easy to see: you’ll have to trudge up mountains, walk along wooded river valleys and search through pine forests to find them — all while enjoying some of the most spectacular landscape in the country. Together with wonderful views, excellent accommodation, great places to eat and drink, and the famous malt whisky, the Highlands are a very enticing package to newcomers as well as experienced birdwatchers. So pack your walking boots and waterproofs, grab your binoculars and get twitching.
The mountains The Cairngorm Plateau is the only ‘arctic-alpine’ habitat in the British Isles, which means several species that specialise in living at high altitude breed there. Only one is so well adapted that it can survive
on the high tops of the mountains all year round: the ptarmigan, whose name derives from the Scots Gaelic word for its distinctive croaking call, which echoes around the spectacular scenery. Actually seeing this bird can be tricky though, since ptarmigan are masters of camouflage, moulting into three distinct plumages in a single year (including almost pure white in winter). But if you sit quietly and carefully scan the rocky slopes, you’ll eventually see them. Another much smaller bird, the snow bunting,
spends the spring and summer on the high tops, alongside the ptarmigan. Each year a few pairs breed in snow-filled corries — sheltered dips formed by glacial erosion — where they sing their
tuneful song. After breeding, they head down the mountain; some go all the way down to the coast, while others stay much closer to home, in the car park at the bottom of the funicular railway that takes visitors up to the top of Cairn Gorm itself. Snow bunting flocks can be very tame, foraging for scraps of food left deliberately or accidentally by the many visitors. The third mountain speciality, the dotterel, is
only here during the late spring and early summer months, having migrated all the way from its winter home in North Africa. The dotterel is a wader, but with a difference: unlike its marsh- loving relative, it breeds on the tops of mountains. It also has a bizarre sex life, with the more colourful and assertive females laying their clutch of eggs and then heading off to Norway to breed again. This leaves the drabber male to incubate the eggs and raise the chicks. A day’s birdwatching on the Cairngorm Plateau
may only produce half a dozen species — you might also see red grouse, meadow pipit, wheatear, ring ouzel and, if you’re lucky, golden eagle — but combined with the mountain scenery, it’ll certainly be a fruitful day.
Forests and woods Much of the land below the plateau is covered in trees: both the Scots pine and the more open birch woods. These forests are full of special birds and other wildlife, but can also feel as if they’re totally deserted, as the wild creatures that live here are very good at hiding away. An early morning start on a fine, calm day will
help, as it enables you to notice the tiny movements that give away a bird’s presence in the dense foliage and also, in late winter and spring, hear the birdsong. In the pine forests, there are coal tits, treecreepers and goldcrests, while the crested tit — more or less unique to this area of the Highlands — can be hard to see. Listen out for its distinctive
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER – LAKES & MOUNTAINS COLLECTION 23
IMAGE: ALAMY
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