Posts for March, 2024

Discover how to identify the smells & tastes, learn the language & understand what you enjoy!

This eco-event is now in its 4th year and will again showcase ways of achieving a sustainable environment with the green credentials of local businesses on display.

We are expecting return visits by most of last year’s stallholders including representatives from the building industry, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Home Energy Scotland, Grantown Society, wind farm developers, wildlife champions, and experts in waste management, the circular economy and creative child’s play.

This year we are extending our invitation to all with an interest in the natural world.

The ‘Sunshine State’ of Florida is the fifth most species rich in the United States, with a bird list of over 500 species, including restricted local specialities like Roseate Spoonbill, Swallow-tailed Kite, the quirky Limpkin and Anhinga, the bizarre Black Skimmer and the endemic Florida Scrub Jay. Florida is also home to seven woodpeckers, eleven different herons and egrets, in a range of sizes from the tiny Least Bittern to the Great Blue Heron, a dazzling variety of colourful warblers and the highest concentration of iconic Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states, while the state bird is the Northern Mockingbird. Besides all these amazingly tame and approachable birds, offering unrivalled photo-opportunities, there is a wealth of other wildlife, including Bob Cat, Racoon, Armadillo, Gopher Tortoise, various turtles and butterflies and thousands of American Alligators. So, let’s hit the trail!

With palm-fringed white sandy beaches, lapped by calm warm crystal clear turquoise water, the Seychelles are said to be the most beautiful islands in the world. This isolated archipelago, a thousand miles from anywhere, has twelve of the world’s rarest endemic birds, like the superb Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher, and is a magnet to spectacular crowds of literally millions of seabirds, which can be enjoyed at incredibly close range, ideal for photography. This talk includes the wildlife of five different islands, Praslin, Mahe, La Digue, Cousin and fabulous Bird Island, with its frenetic colony of around 1.5 million Sooty Terns and Esmeralda the world’s largest giant tortoise, weighing 6 hundredweights and thought to be over 200 years old! Bird Island is definitely one of my favourite places on the planet. So, come along and see for yourself.

An evening talk with a difference, TV Presenter and Naturalist Nick Baker will have a bucket of pond water and an electron microscope. We will find out what is lurking unseen in our ponds and find out more about their life cycles and stories, a fascinating insight into a hidden world.

This talk is a tour of the best that Namibia has to offer for wildlife and covers a variety of scenery and habitats from coast to desert.

A look at the wide variety of habitats of this country and it’s associated birdlife. The talk also takes in some historical sites such as Petra , Jerash and some ancient castles from the period of the crusades.

Being a TV presenter who pontificates about wildlife seems like a fun and exciting gig. It is also a very public job with all the pressures that brings, and just like Marmite, everyone either loves them or hates them! Having worked as a presenter on a variety of programmes across a number of channels, puts Mike in a unique position to talk about the hard work, attributes and resilience needed to make a living from this uniquely bizarre profession.

The Scottish Highlands have some exceptional wildlife—which is why we are all here! Some of the birds and mammals are very different from what we are used to elsewhere in the country, and it can feel like being thrown into the deep end trying to identify these beasties. So, in this Mike will introduce the birds (and some mammals) we all want to see, with particular emphasis on how to identify them at this time of year (early spring). Expect ID tips for eagles, grouse, divers, grebes, sea-ducks, auks, Crested Tit and some LBJs, as well as seals.

If you’re making the long drive up to the Highlands, it makes sense to incorporate a bit of birding into your stops along the way (especially if you’re doing Bird Watching’s #My200BirdYear challenge). Matt will take a look at some great birdwatching spots along the way – from RSPB reserves to service stations and laybys. All of them are easy to access and make perfect places to pull over, enjoy a coffee and a biscuit, and add a few ticks to your list, including eagles, grouse, sea-ducks, geese and more.