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Wildlife Holidays / Tours – British Isles

February 20, 2011 By
puffins

puffins

There is a huge market for holidays specialising in wildlife/nature and the UK/British Isles has a multitude of wildlife and much of the wonderful and special things can be discovered by spending a holiday either on your own or with family, camping perhaps with your own equipment, i.e. with a tent and pair of binoculars or perhaps with the help of experienced guides on an arranged holiday/tour.

A favourite destination of mine is Scotland, especially as it is renowned for its stunning landscape and fascinating and amazing wildlife but it is so difficult to know where to begin as the area is so vast and there are hundreds of sites for viewing wildlife. There is a wide variety of self catering holiday accommodation from cottages and caravans and luxury hotels.

In my opinion, the best way to get close to those must-see species such as whales or seals is to enlist the help of a local expert, whether on foot, but usually by boat!  Boat trips range from one hour trips to view local seal colonies, day trips for whale watching through to week long live-aboard cruises calling at a variety of destinations including St. Kilda, the Western Isles and Orkney. I cannot recommend this enough, visiting these places was an absolutely awesome experience.

There is a massive range of sites for viewing wildlife in Scotland ranging from Visitor Centres with interactive displays to isolated hides on little known reserves.

Below are a few species that are considered the ‘best’ to see around Scotland, a mixture of aquatic animals, land animals and birds.

Atlantic Salmon can be found in all major rivers in Scotland.  Best to see in Spring, Summer and Autumn.
Osprey can now be found from the Northwest Highlands to the Tweed Valley.  Spring and Summer are the best seasons to see Osprey.

Puffins are so popular on the list of the ‘best’ species to see and are best seen in Spring and Summer whilst visiting Scotland.  Some of the largest puffin colonies in the British Isles can be found in remote places such as St Kilda and the Shiants but visitors to Scotland also benefit from a number of more accessible populations such as Inchcolm and the Isle of May (both manageable as a day trip from Edinburgh).

Red Deer – With an estimated 300,000 red deer in Scotland, you are never too far away from them! Most popular places for seeing red deer include Galloway Forest Park, Rum and Jura, Perthshire and the Northwest Highlands and are best seen in the seasons of Winter, Spring and Autumn.

Filed Under: Nature Tours, Wildlife Holidays Tagged With: , ,

How My Love of Birds, Wildlife and Conservation Began

January 24, 2011 By
bird box

bird box

I grew up in Cheshire and as a child my family took a great interest in the countryside, taking frequent walks across the Cheshire landscape.These were formative experiences, imbuing into me a love of nature.

For all nature lovers, bird watching for example is one of the easiest and most rewarding hobbies to have and this being one of my great hobbies which began, again, when I was a child.  My late Grandfather made his own bird box for his garden, a simple wooden, oval/oblong shaped box with a small hole, designed mainly for the Tit family of birds, painted in a green ‘grass’ colour, and he lovingly gave it to me when he moved to my Parents’ house when my Grandmother died and he wanted me to have it, as he knew how much pleasure it had given me over the years (and in turn himself) when we used to stand together in his Kitchen and watch through the window out into his garden, delighting at the delicate Blue Tits flying in and out of the box throughout the Spring and Summer months, rearing their families.  Such precious memories I have and still to this day, my bird box gives me great pleasure year after year for the simplicity of such an item brings so much wonder and delight, combined with very happy memories for me of course.This is how my birdwatching hobby began!

Birdwatching is a very peaceful and relaxing hobby and anyone of any age can participate. It can literally be done anywhere – from your own back garden, whilst out walking either in the countryside or your local park and for those who are more avid enthusiasts, at a Bird Sanctuary, although may I say, an enthusiast or not, visiting a Bird Sanctuary is a wonderful experience.  There are even holidays/tours, specialising in wildlife breaks in general or specifically for ‘bird watching’, throughout the UK and Europe.

When you ‘fall in love’ with nature and wildlife and all that it encompasses, naturally, conservation becomes an important part of this wonderful hobby, wildlife conservation is a huge topic and therefore, opens up ‘another world’ as there are a number of major threats to our wildlife, i.e. poaching/hunting, climate change, toxic chemicals/pesticides and habitat loss.  It is only natural when you love something; you want to nurture and preserve it!  It is so easy too to become involved in conservation as you don’t necessarily have to join a Group or Trust to do so, you can help from your own back garden …. feeding the birds being one very important task.

Filed Under: Bird Watching Holidays, Wildlife Holidays Tagged With: , ,