Our trip to the Scottish Highlands was based in two locations the first week at the Aigas Field Centre, west of Inverness, and second week was based at the Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown-on-Spey.
On our first night at Aigas we went looking for Beavers on the Loch within the estate grounds and were rewarded with a sighting of two at dusk. One swam across the Loch and up onto the bank and disappeared, the second swam across up onto the bank and stayed feeding until the tight gave out. Initially I thought it was too dark for photography but decided to push the ISO to max and see what I could get.
The next morning, out of the bedroom window, our second ever sighting of a Red Squirrel.
On a walk round the estate, a low flying Buzzard
A Treecreeper set off beautifully by the Lichen.
The next day in Strath Conon we saw four Golden Eagles, these two were the lowest flying of them, although still very high up.
An ancient breed of feral goat.
Many Red Deer.
Slavonian Grebe at Loch Ruthven.
Within the estate grounds there is a hide where we could see Badgers and Pine Martens, lit for night time photography.
Pink Footed Goose on the Moray Firth.
Later out on a boat from Cromarty Firth, a juvenile Guillemot.
A pair of Shags.
A diving Sandwich Tern
A fly past of Long-tailed Ducks, unfortunately shooting into the sun.
Pair of Razorbills.
Kittiwake.
Cormorants, Shags and GBB Gull.
And straight over the top of us, a Gannet.
These are a greatly reduced set of highlights from part of the first week at Aigas, there will be more to follow. Even deleting as I went I still had a few thousand pictures to look through and after being back a month I still haven't gone through all of them.
Best Wishes,
Trevor
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Regards, Hazel
What a brilliant set of photos from your first week. I'm looking forward to the second weeks photos.
BTW, I was not far from Inverness and Granton last week, staying in Kingussie just a little further down the A9 (and A95 from Granton on Spey) with a family friend.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
A lovely part 1 trip Trevor, look forward to part 2
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Lot to learn
Hi All,Many thanks everyone for the very kind comments on what was a very special trip for us. The silhouetted deer shot wasn't taken at dawn or dusk but late morning shooting into the sun with some dark clouds gathering.Favourites for my wife and I are the Beavers, we've never seen them before. The Golden Eagles and Long-tailed Ducks were first ever sightings too. There were quite a few other first sightings but they were seen through one of our guides telescopes and out of range of the camera.Part 2 of the Aigas week to follow soon.
Here's another Wild Goat shot and one of a the many Red Kites we saw, we almost never see them in Suffolk.
Thanks again,