Creating content with Heatherlea Birding and Wildlife Holidays

Hello again!

My plan is to space out the publication of my blogs, aiming for twice a month. Nevertheless, I couldn't wait to kick things off by sharing details about my most recent trip. I intend to cover all my travel experiences from the past year, providing insights and stories from my adventures. Starting from the beginning, I will delve into each journey, but for now, let's focus on my exciting content creation trip with Heatherlea Birding and Wildlife Holidays.

I was invited to join them on their Highland birding in late summer trip at the beginning of August, so I headed over to their beautiful base in Nethy Bridge, Scotland. It was here that my content creation work began, and I wanted to capture some aerial shots of their hotel using my drone. Luckily, my first morning with them saw a stunning, sunny start to the day with little to no wind; the perfect conditions for sending a drone up.

The Mountview Hotel - Heatherlea Headquarters

After we had, had an incredible breakfast at the Mountview Hotel, we headed out on my first day with the group who would be spending a whole week exploring the wildlife around the Highlands. We drove up to the Moray coast and our first stop was Spey Bay, an area great for lots of wildlife including Ospreys and sometimes, the resident pod of Bottlenose dolphins if you are lucky to see them passing by.

Within seconds of us scanning the horizon for signs of life, I spotted some white splashes in the water, something that I thought looked very dolphinesque (is that a word? It is now.) A few moments later, I saw the distinctive backs and dorsal fins of a pod of Bottlenose dolphins as they passed us by on the beach. Some were fairly close in but most were right off in the distance however, they did put on quite the show with a few big leaps out of the water. A perfect start to my 2 days with Heatherlea. During this time here, we also witnessed 3 species of tern; Common, Sandwich and Little terns plus a very large raft of Goosander which seemed unphased by the dolphins splashing them as they passed by.

After a successful morning watching wildlife, we continued our journey along the coastline in pursuit of more exciting sightings, which proved to be equally rewarding. During our lunch break, I was very happy with the diverse array of birds we encountered, including the Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskin, Yellowhammer, Chaffinches, Blue Tits, Robins, and many more.

Spending time in a hide just a short walk away from the lunch spot was also a good spot for sightings where we went on to see things such as a Shoveler, Mallards, Moorhens amongst other waterfowl and wader species.

Before heading back to our base, we drove just a little further up the coast. On the drive, we saw plenty of raptors including a Marsh harrier, something not seen frequently in the area as well as a distant Osprey. We got out for a coffee and cake break which was absolutely divine let me tell you. The chefs from Heatherlea’s Mountview hotel are perfection!

It was at this point we spotted some seals bobbing around on the shore and around them were again, plenty of different species including Curlews, Redshank, Turnstones and the beautifully coloured Knots.

Now I should mention that whenever I am trying to get a photograph of the wildlife, I do tend to lie down in some questionable places as I like to get low angles. Sometimes, this is caught by others…as you can see in the next image. This was me trying to get down to catch the Knot as seen in picture 2 above.

Rosie B Wild in action…

And whilst we are on the subject of the questionable angles I get into…here is one caught whilst I was trying to film the Bottlenose dolphins. I know…there’s a few chins there but I was doing my best to keep the camera stable!

When you aren’t carrying the tripod - what’s the next best thing?

Anyway, this was just day 1, let’s move on to my 2nd and final day with Heatherlea. We were originally planned to be going on a boat trip with Hebridean Whale Cruises in Gairloch, however, due to weather conditions, we had to change our plans. I worked with Hebridean Whale Cruises back in 2022 so I completely understand the weather on the west coast of Scotland can be a little crazy at times so although gutted, I didn’t get to go there this time, we still had an absolutely wonderful day. (Maybe I will do a blog post on the epic marine life in the Minch and my time with HWC soon - there is so much incredible life there and it really is a fantastic trip to go on, if you ever get the chance.) If you are keen and the weather plays ball - then you really are in for a treat with HWC. The staff are phenomenal and the wildlife, well, I have never been anywhere so epic for sea life in the UK. Website link here - https://www.hebridean-whale-cruises.co.uk

So as I mentioned, day 2 plans had to be changed so we headed off on a drive around the Cairngorms where we had plenty of stops to look for life. The whole day, we were absolutely spoilt with raptor sightings including plenty of Red kite, Buzzards, Peregrine falcon and a Golden eagle. My favourite sighting though was probably this stunning pair of Osprey which we saw whilst driving. I only had a few seconds to point my camera out the window for this as we couldn’t stop at this location. Incredible to see nonetheless.

I would say that my personal highlight from day 2 was the visit to Glenshee Ski Centre where we caught the cable car up to the top. Every direction you looked was just absolutely breathtaking scenery that really just reminds me how much I adore Scotland. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, it always looks incredible.

Whilst we waited for the cable car, we noticed that the visitor centre had nesting House Martins and upon looking up, saw 2 very cute faces staring back at me. Of course, as you would expect by now, I was lying in a strange place to get them. See below.

This was caught by one of our guests who was then caught by another - a picture of a picture of a picture if you will.

Once we reached the summit, we were on the look out for Ptarmigan and Mountain hare; we had already spotted the latter with scopes when at the bottom but once up, we were on a mission to find them again. We wandered about and I was busy snapping the guests on the tour as they followed guides Aidan and Ian (who I should add, were fantastic.) I’ll attach some favourite images of the adventures this afternoon below.

Following a stroll, we eventually caught sight of a Mountain hare leaping across the hills. We had a brief moment to take a distant photo before Aidan, with his eagle eyes, noticed another one hidden behind some rocks a little closer. I was able to inch closer and take a few more pictures, but soon it vanished into the hills. It was a great encounter; getting to see them in their natural environment bounding across the epic landscape of Glenshee.

Once we were back down from the summit, we continued our search for wildlife. We pulled up at another location to scan for raptors. It was here that we managed to see a Golden eagle. Eating homemade Jam Roly Poly (from the Heatherlea chefs) with tea whilst watching a Golden eagle swoop over the peaks was a pretty great way to spend an afternoon. Whilst I was scanning the area, I thought this would be the perfect place to test out my new Hikmicro Habrok 4k Thermal Binoculars to see if I could see any signs of life hidden in the vast hills. I spotted a group of hot spots in the binoculars thermal view and when I switched to the digital lens of them, I realised we had a group of 13 Red deer stags sat high up in the hills. They were really difficult to spot by eye so I have to say, I am very impressed with how incredibly helpful the Hikmicro equipment is when it comes to spotting wildlife. I will link them here - https://www.hikmicrotech.com/en/outdoor-products/habrok-4k-multi-spectrum-binocular/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAo5a4dWvT0GrYl9vVaPr6QnRgCp_g&gclid=CjwKCAjwoJa2BhBPEiwA0l0ImFg6ftRZaQSUYSqVDDt8JZAn5bLH3k2tWELTvTXJJUihwNH6yhaIaxoCQgIQAvD_BwE

Here is what the binoculars saw;

So all in all, my 2 days with Heatherlea was amazing and having kept in contact with some of the guests from the trip (who sent me the great photos of me), I know they continued to see lots of great stuff once I left. It was such a fun few days and I am hoping that I will get to collaborate with them again in the future. They have such a huge array of great trips, not just in Scotland but right across the globe so if you are interested, you can click the button below to their website and get yourself on an epic wildlife trip. Maybe, I might just see you there!

Heatherlea website

Thank you for taking the time to read my adventures - see you on the next installment in early September.

Over and out.

Rosie B Wild.

P.s here is a short video from the adventures too.