Eagle Eyes Wildlife Guiding

Name: Eagle Eyes Wildlife Guiding
Address: Kingussie, GB
Telephone: +447878409289
Price range: £££
Rating: 4.8

Home
United Kingdom
Kingussie
Eagle Eyes Wildlife Guiding

Eagle Eyes Wildlife Guiding, based in The Cairngorms, offering bespoke birding/wildlife watching day standard day tour £120 for up to 4 people
(8)

01/03/2023

I've been lucky enough to have spent most of this week watching this pair of White-tailed Eagles on a site I'm surveying. They've been going through some courtship rituals & today watched them mating, fingers crossed they have a successful year.
Not the greatest pics but they are about a km away.

05/12/2022

You dont see many Foxes in the Highlands. It's not surprising really, regarded as public enemy number 1 by every keeper, shepherd & stalker their numbers are kept well in check, plus a lower density due to less productive land compared to southern habitats & they're predominantly nocturnal, so like I say not a big surprise I dont see many.
So when I was driving home this arvo & a big dog Fox trotted across the road in front of me it was a bit of a 'ooh!' Moment. It was a quiet road so when i got level with where he disappeared, I stopped n had a look, & there he was, still very close n unperturbed by the car or me hanging out the window with my phone. The fact I took the pics on my phone shows how close he was, a healthy, good looking fella.

11/11/2022

Had an epic spectacle whilst out surveying today.
My vantage point had a youngish, small conifer plantation about 1/4 of a mile down to the right, while scanning I picked up a sub-adult Golden Eagle flying low in a slow, controlled flight over the plantation, several Black Grouse exploded out of the trees spooked by the large raptor overhead but the eagle seemed totally disinterested by them.
It cruised out of sight but 10 minutes later it was back, this time it wasn't alone, a second adult bird was with it. The 2 of them then started stooping on something behind a hillock, so I couldn't see what. Then a Sika deer hind appeared & ran up the fence surrounding the plantation with an eagle in hot pursuit! The deer went around the corner & out of sight but I could still see the eagle which was still stooping on the hind.
Half a dozen or so other hinds followed the 1st but the other eagle had managed to spook one the other way along the fence, I watched amazed as both eagles then came in low n fast from behind the fleeing deer, the lead bird easily caught up to it & made a grab for its rump! Which was fluffed up in alarm. It missed but kept up the pursuit, sadly they all went out of sight but I'm pretty sure the raptors were unsuccessful.
I saw the younger eagle again cruising low over the plantation a bit later but nothing else exciting occurred.

21/10/2022

Out on the moor surveying this morning & had a slightly squeaky bum moment & got to appreciate how a Red Stags personality totally changes during the rutt.
I'd heard 2 or 3 roaring but i couldn't see any & had even thought 'good, they can stay that way'

Then one appeared, he was a few hundred meters away & started roaring, then he clocked me.
Now, any other time of year he would of turned tail n buggered off rapidly, but he didn't, he started bee-lining straight for me!

Now like I said, he was a little way away & was in no rush, but the closer he got the more nervous I became, i know someone who was tossed like a rag doll n badly injured by a stag in the rutt & have read of other accounts so felt justified in my apprehension.
So of course I did what any modern person does in such a situation, got my phone out n started filming!

I was just starting to think at what point do I stand up n 'make myself big' & if I do, will that make things worse? He got to about 30-40 feet away & stopped. I thought, if he wants he could cover that distance in no time, he was scenting the air & looking intently, but a stiff breeze was blowing towards me so he couldn't scent me. He seemed to be debating it in his head but I was relieved to see that he decided to move off, although he did keep looking back at me for a bit before finally going off, much to my relief.

16/05/2022

Brief vid of a Slavonian Grebe fishing.

16/05/2022

Hi folks, long time no see! There is a good reason for this, basically because I'm not really guiding anymore. For various reasons not least trying to make ends meet as a self employed wildlife guide through the pandemic had no small part to play. So I've had to go & get a proper job, & am now working for a local Ecological consultants as an Ornithologist/Ecologist mainly undertaking field surveys, which is a great job & I'm enjoying it lots

Because they're a good bunch they've let me honour any bookings I'd taken before I was offered the job. So today was one of those, a day tour with Tom & Zoe from Brighton. Top of the wishlist for them was Osprey & Golden Eagle. It wasn't long before we were at a local site where you can observe an Osprey nest without causing any disturbance. The female was sat on eggs in the nest & the male was sat in a tree nearby. There were Goldeneye on the loch here too & it was nice to see a host of Swallows & Sand Martins hawking for insects over the water.

From here we headed up a nearby glen for target 2, Golden Eagle. At our first stop we had a Red Kite & fields of feeding Golden Plover, Curlew, Oystercatcher & Lapwing (one of whom was dive-bombing a Pheasant which had strayed too close to a nest or chicks).

Stop 2 we added a Dipper taking beak-fulls of aquatic inverts to a nest under a bridge & the other denizens of shallow, fast-flowing, upland rivers, the Grey Wagtail.
Stop 3 we hit the jackpot, I clocked an eagle crossing the glen towards us & we had good views of it as it cruised overhead. It suddenly veered off & went almost back the way it came, this was because a pair of Goldies had appeared from the opposite ridge & bee-lined after eagle 1, obviously an interloper in to the pairs home range. We watched the pair over the ridge eagle 1 had vanished over & the male of the pair started displaying, making it clear that this was thier patch & to stay out!
The pair hung around for a while & we had extended, good views of the King of birds= happy bunnies.

From here we drove over the moors & down to a loch where we had cracking views of Slavonian Grebes & Red-throated Divers, which was nice plus Common Sandpiper & lots more Sand Martins. On the way back we added lekking Black Grouse, on the lek in late afternoon which can happen when they're keen & saves you getting up at 3.30AM! Then by chance a Short-eared Owl floated over the road in front of us like a big moth & landed on the moor a few hundred meters away. We were able to pull over & get nice scope views.
All in all a great day seeing breeding season in full swing even if the weather was a wee dreich.

It may seem I've got very close to protected species but all pics are 'phone-scoped' with a very good scope from a safe distance.

20/03/2022

A lovely weekend over in Fort William to meet up with me ol ma & Mike, for a busmans holiday as we went out around the Morvern peninsula in glorious weather & saw no less than 3 different pairs of Golden Eagle, lots of Great-northern Divers, Slavonian Grebe, Black Guillemot, Red Deer, Wild goats, Common Seals & lots more. This morning we added a White-tailed Eagle being mobbed by a Raven, a Greenshank, Teal, Wigeon to name a few.
Even more spectacular, was the very rare views of Ben Nevis in all its glory. 9 times out of 10 when I'm over that way its shrouded in low cloud but not today!

16/03/2022

A few views from my 'office' this week, whilst out surveying in the Monahliah mountains, birds are fairly few & far between up here at this time of year but its great Golden Eagle country & we saw a few along with Ravens, Kestrel, Peregrine & Red Grouse. Plus plenty of Red, Sika & Fallow Deer.

Waders & Gulls have returned inland to breed with river valley fields now covered in Oystercatcher, Curlew, Lapwing & Golden Plover.

01/03/2022

A lovely day here in the Highlands & feeling quite 'spring-like'. I went out this afternoon to put some nest-boxes up in the Birch wood around the loch at the back of the cottage. A selection of the usual boxes with the hole for tit species plus some open fronted ones favoured by Robins & Spotted Flycatcher. I shall keep adding to them but hopefully some will be used this Spring.
Out on the loch there was a selection of duck, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon & Goldeneye (which were displaying). A big gaggle of Greylags were grazing the field next to the loch & honking constantly. One of the local Mistle Thrushes was singing away which was nice to hear & I could see that the local Badgers have been out & busy digging up roots & tubers after being 'grounded' after the recent snow.

19/02/2022

The calm after the storm!
Gorgeous day today after the wind & snow of the last couple of days. I took a wee wander in the Birch wood near the cottage. I could hear Greylags honking by the loch which was frozen around the outside but open in the middle. Blue & Great T**s were calling from the canopy & I watched a Treecreeper busily working the lichen encrusted bark of a Silver Birch for spiders or other inverts hiding from the cold.
From the other side of the loch I could hear the raucous shrieks of Jay's, a regular if recent addition to this part of the strath, even coming in to my feeders right by the cottage. A line of Fox tracks followed the shore of the loch but I cut in away from the loch where I inadvertently put up a Woodcock, these conditions being particularly hard for these woodland waders, when theres a few inches of snow & frozen ground between you & your food. I dropped down a ridge through the trees & had another Woodcock & could hear the plaintive peeping call of Bullfinches & found a female calling at the top of a birch. I also came across a line of Roe Deer tracks in the snow before finishing my circular route.

08/02/2022

A short vid of the Crossbill feeding on a Spruce cone.

08/02/2022

Back out Guiding again today with my guestsTim & Carol, who although had visited the area several times had never seen any of the 3 possible Crossbill species found here, they also wanted to see Crested Tit. So it was into the Caledonian forest we went.
The forecast had said drizzle all day but luckily it was wrong, & it was blue sky but with a cold breeze.
We soon heard the 'chip chip' calls of crossbills, but they were flying & never came into view, a case of 'you cant see the birds for the trees!' A walk around the forest did turn up a mixed feeding flock of mainly Coal T**s but luckily a couple of Cresties too, which we all saw well. With no other sight or sound of Crossbills we headed to another bit of forest where you often get some. We didn't get any here to start with either but we did get a couple more Cresties along with the commoner Coal T**s, Siskin & Chaffinches. As we walked back to the car I spotted a chunky finch flitting in a Spruce & luckily it was a Crossbill. Where theres one the usually more & sure enough we found several more but they were being very quiet, they're usually more chatty. I could get the scope on them & Tim got some pics too.
After lunch we changed habitats & took a drive up a glen, mainly looking for Red Deer & Mountain Hares. We got the 1st when I clocked a herd of Stags all laying down, chewing the cud up on the mountain side. The Hares however were playing hard to get & we never did find any. We did have a couple of Buzzards & Red Kites though, a Dipper & a wee flock of Fieldfare.

14/01/2022

At this time of year I've been doing more bird surveying than guiding, which can be a bit boring with very few species present in the moors & mountains in winter (not to mention a pretty cold wet & windy gigg)
Today however I got some excitement when I clocked a couple of adult White-tailed Eagles over to my right bee-lining low & fast across the moor in front of me, obviously 'on a mission'. I was following the lead bird & watched it sharply bank & drop, I thought it was going to land but up popped a Mountain Hare which the eagles had obviously spotted from a huge distance away & gone for. The Hare sprinted in to a deep peaty gully & out of sight from me with the lead eagle in hot pursuit, sadly I didn't see either eagle or the hare again so dont know how the saga ended.

07/01/2022

Hi folks, hope everyone had a good crimbo & new year.

I've put together a dedicated mammal watching trip based here in the Highlands, it's a 2 centre holiday spending a couple of days in Perthshire in the company of Bob 'nature nuts' Smith, utilizing his woodland hide for Pine Marten & Red Squirrel & his local knowledge to watch Beavers in the area. Mountain Hare & Fallow deer will also be on the agenda here.

We'll then move up to Speyside where we'll meet the Cairngorm Reindeer, visit the Highland Wildlife Park to see what's being done to save the Wildcat as well as visits to Otter & Badger hides & a couple of boat trips in the Moray Firth & off the West coast to look for Whales, Dolphins & Seals. Plus we'll spend time looking for Brown Hare, Roe & Red Deer.
Hopefully we'll have time to do some Bat detecting & even some small mammal trapping.
If this sounds good to you or you know someone who would love this please share this post or get in touch. I'll need 6 or 7 people to run it & can lay on a 2nd trip if theres enough interest. The cost will be around £800pp. Although it's a mammal trip we will of course be in the right habitats to encounter Eagles & other iconic Highland birds & other wildlife.
If I get enough interest I'm looking to run the trip in late summer. So if you're seriously interested message me or email at [email protected]
Thanks.

23/11/2021

Had a few goodies over the last couple of weeks, A Cattle Egret has been hanging out unsurprisingly with cattle just up the road & is a rare treat this far North. 3 vagrant Snow Geese are on the coast hanging out with the more usual Greylags & Pinkies. The other day we had a male Capercaillie sat up a tree feeding on Pine needles (someone has to!) & several Tree Sparrows coming to feeders.

03/11/2021

Playing with my super slow mo function on Coal T**s coming to the hand.

28/10/2021

The Red Deer rut seems to have petered out around here but we were watching the Salmon spawning today which was cool, plus Black Grouse at the lek & no less than 5 Golden Eagles through the day plus nice close views of a pair of Bullfinch.

25/10/2021

Heading to the east coast again & after bagging a King Eider in Moray we bumped in to these elegant beauties in Aberdeenshire, Common Cranes, a family group, one of the small population now getting established here, happily picking spilt seed from a stubble field next to the A98!
Later some Whooper Swans in curious poses.

24/10/2021

Theres been loads of Redwing coming through over the last week or so, but only today have I seen the first Fieldfares. I snapped this Redwing while we were watching Common Crossbills feeding on spruce cones.
Last thing today we watched 3 Golden Eagles hunting the hillside opposite, the late afternoon sun lighting them perfectly.

20/10/2021

It's not often I get a 'lifer' these days, but I did today! Still over on the East Coast & we had this Greater Yellowlegs, an American vagrant classed as a 'mega' in birding parlance, meaning it's super rare for one to turn up this side of the pond.
It's a close relative of our Greenshank & Redshank & was very reminiscent of a Greenshank in size & behaviour. Unfortunately we had to view it from a hide with windows which were covered in condensation & a few hundred meters away & it never stayed still, hence the crappy pics, but we were chuffed none the less. There were plenty of Whooper Swans there too & thousands of Pink-footed Geese.

19/10/2021

Over on the East coast above Aberdeen today for some good coastal birding.
We had wintering Sea Duck, Eider, Common Scoter & Long-tailed Duck plus lots of Red-throated Divers, one of which got ridiculously close to shore & was unperturbed by the folk on the beach, likewise a couple of Guillemot.

The show stealer though was when we clocked a young female Peregrine which was cruising over the Ythan estuary & put up all the waders, mainly Curlew & Lapwing but also a flock of around 20 Bar-tailed Godwits. The Peregrine pursued the waders & one of the Godwits got separated from the rest of the flock, of course this one was singled out & the large falcon in level flight easily caught up to it & just missed grabbing it in the air, it doubled back & again went at the Godwit again, In a desperate attempt to avoid its pursuer the wader ditched into the estuary where it was out of its depth & bobbed on the surface.
The Peregrine made several attempts to pluck it off the water but seemed very wary of getting too close to the water, then a Carrion Crow joined the fray & every time the raptor attempted a pick up the crow mobbed it & put it off only to attempt to get the Godwit itself! It came closest & twice grabbed the floundering wader in its feet & tried to lift it off the waters surface, but the Godwit had enough fight left to struggle & was twice dropped.
Both the predators eventually gave up & we watched the the Godwit drifting off on the tide, probably destined to drown but become no ones dinner. The Peregrine & Crow continued to squabble with each other after their prospective supper had gone. A cracking sight of raw nature in action.

16/10/2021

Female Crossbill.

16/10/2021

The Red Deer rut is in full swing. This fella had about 25 Hinds to keep him busy.

10/10/2021

Out on the Hebs again this week, lots of White-tailed Eagles, couple of Goldies, Divers, sea-birds, Otters and a couple of vagrants. A cracking Drake Surf Scoter and a juvenile American Golden Plover hanging out with his European cousins.

09/10/2021

There's a weird phenomenon in Scotland regarding Crows. Imagine a line that follows the great glen (where Loch Ness sits). North and west of that line you get Hooded Crows, south and east of the line its Carrion Crows. I' ve never heard or read a theory as to why this occurs but it does. On the border of this line you get both types which leads to hybrids. On a recent visit to the inner Moray Firth (on the line) I was lucky enough to get this shot of one of each.

03/10/2021

It's been a hectic couple of weeks flitting all over the Highlands and Islands but Autumn has definitely arrived when the Whooper Swans, Pink-footed Geese, Common and Velvet Scoter arrived.
On the first of October whilst out watching Black Grouse on the lek we heard a couple of Stags roaring and watched one strutting about chasing Hinds.
Out on the Hebs we're watching waders passing through heading south and from the ferry getting Storm Petrel, Great, Arctic and Pomerine Skua plus Manx and Sooty Shearwater, not forgetting the Common Dolphins and Harbour Porpoise. On Harris last week we had no less than 6 Golden Eagles in the air together & half way between Skye & North Uist a White-tailed Eagle appeared above the ferry, using the heat off the stacks like a thermal.

18/09/2021

A few more from this week.

18/09/2021

Cant see enough Black-throated Divers, one of my favourites, so it was a bit jaw dropping to find 35 in one bay off the coast of Lewis this week. 2 large rafts plus a few individuals. It was nice to see a good number of them were youngsters. This one had obligingly come close to shore, most were alot further out.

18/09/2021

Leucism is a genetic mutation which prevents melanin from being properly deposited in the feathers, leaving birds looking alot paler than normal or sometimes totally white.

I found this Leucistic Canada Goose on the Cromarty Firth yesterday, I thinks it's rather fetching.

02/09/2021

A visit to the sunny Moray Firth today. Autumn must of arrived as the first of the wintering Common Scoter have. We had a couple of Spoonbills in a tidal bay, a real scarcity up here. At the same bay were at least 8 Ospreys, filling up on Flounder before heading south. Grey Partridge were foraging in the freshly cut barley fields. Goosanders were gathered at several river mouths to moult.

Address

Kingussie

Telephone

+447878409289

Website

http://eagle-eyes-guiding.co.uk/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Eagle Eyes Wildlife Guiding posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Videos

Out on the moor surveying this morning & had a slightly squeaky bum moment & got to appreciate how a Red Stags personality totally changes during the rutt. I'd heard 2 or 3 roaring but i couldn't see any & had even thought 'good, they can stay that way' Then one appeared, he was a few hundred meters away & started roaring, then he clocked me. Now, any other time of year he would of turned tail n buggered off rapidly, but he didn't, he started bee-lining straight for me! Now like I said, he was a little way away & was in no rush, but the closer he got the more nervous I became, i know someone who was tossed like a rag doll n badly injured by a stag in the rutt & have read of other accounts so felt justified in my apprehension. So of course I did what any modern person does in such a situation, got my phone out n started filming! I was just starting to think at what point do I stand up n 'make myself big' & if I do, will that make things worse? He got to about 30-40 feet away & stopped. I thought, if he wants he could cover that distance in no time, he was scenting the air & looking intently, but a stiff breeze was blowing towards me so he couldn't scent me. He seemed to be debating it in his head but I was relieved to see that he decided to move off, although he did keep looking back at me for a bit before finally going off, much to my relief.