Just back from a couple of days in the Cairngorms, where we were testing a new holiday – our Highland Wildlife experience. We had pretty good weather for the time of year and although it still quite early for lots of wildlife, we enjoyed some fabulous badger watching in the evening hide, and then had a memorable day out with our friends Sharon & Philip with guide Simon. What makes this holiday unique is that the two day trips are exclusive – you have the guide to yourselves so you can very much tailor the days to suit your own interests.

Our main aims on Saturday were three birds which are pretty unique to the Cairngorms – crested tits, Scottish crossbills and ptarmigan. We had reasonable success – on several walks we heard crossbills ( which Heather, influenced no doubt by our time in Africa, kept referring to as hornbills) but only saw evidence of their stripping of pine cones. After pursuing the sounds on two occasions we had a wonderful view of a pair of crested tits bobbing from tree to tree and occasionally displaying their crests.

Ptarmigan, an apparently very large turkey like bird, were not to be found – even the one which will on occasion display to passing traffic near a town was off chilling somewhere else.

Still it was also great to be outdoors surrounded by the glorious scenery of the national park. I also saw my first dipper, and our guide even spotted its nest, tucked up in the beams of a wooden road bridge, would you believe.

On Sunday, with the weather beginning to change, we decided to take the mountain railway up Cairngorm – which takes you to around 1100 metres. At the summit the wind was blowing at 60 mph, but there were still a reasonable number of hardy skiers out there. In the summer as a railway passenger you are restricted to the area immediately surrounding the station, to minimise the impact of thousands of walkers using the railway for ascent and walking down. Still it is a superb experience and well worth the trip. I remembered the last time I was there was in the early 1970s with my parents – great memories.

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