Loads of great guest sightings - where do I start? Findhorn Valley, the 'Valley of the Raptors', is hotting up with 2 Goshawks reported along with Red Kites, Ospreys and Buzzards.

A Ring Ouzel pair are being seen at the Cairngorm Mountain Visitor Centre car park, and Ospreys have been seen fishing at both Loch Ruthven and Loch Insh.

Both Short-eared and Barn Owls are turning up regularly at Lochindorb, and a first for our guided walks is a definite sighting of a Green Woodpecker which we first thought we heard yaffelling away last week. Right at the northern edge of its traditional range, this is an unusual and exciting encounter for the Cairngorms National Park as a whole.

Where can you see Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Slavonian Grebes, Mountain Hare, Osprey, Ptarmigan, Ring Ouzel and Red Deer in one day?

Right here in the Cairngorms with the Bird Watching and Wildlife Club and Wild Caledonia!

"The best day out ever," (according to guest David Donald) also included a lunch in a remote estate bothy and a nocturnal encounter with a Tawny Owl, on a long but unforgettable crusade for the 'Speyside Specialities'. Everyone involved said they wanted to come again - and you can come too!

We're offering this event again in on 19-20 June and 17-18 July, 2009. For more details and to join in the fun contact Wild Caledonia on 07887 883117.

So much news to report since my last entry.

A great day at Coignafearn was topped off with a dusk sighting of one of the most difficult mammals of all to track down - Sika Deer.
I snapped this famously secretive species feeding - very unusually - in a small herd at the edge of a plantation. Sika deer are normally known to be solitary outside of the rut, so this was highly unusual behaviour, perhaps prompted by the lack of suitable rich feeding pastures just now.


Elsewhere, birds galore have been invading the Highlands, with the first true migrants such as Ring Ouzel already being spotted by guests during their travels. Golden Plovers are making their beautiful plaintive call on the moors and floodplains, whilst Red and Black-throated Divers have been turning up on many different lochs, already showing off the best of their breeding finery. The Slavonian Grebes are refusing to be left out too, with 9 already seen on Loch Ruthven!

The first Osprey was seen over a week ago, an incredibly early sighting, and, the best news of all...it has just been confirmed that the breeding female Loch Garten female Osprey from 2008, EJ, has returned safe and sound from her winter in West Africa and is already busily scraping out her nest! First 'CaperWatch' for 2009 just two days away!

A positively balmy day in the Highlands, with perfect blue skies and amazing panoramas of the Cairngorms. The bird activity is really starting to hot up now, with waders everywhere. It's easy to forget what a beautiful bird the Lapwing is in the full glory of its breeding plumage with its dark green back and glossed purple and copper wing edges - enough for me to forgive their relentless a-wheep wheep! song through the dead of night keeping me awake!

It was a great to get a couple of sightings of the elusive Woodcock on our Woodcock walk last night, and the three displaying Kestrels at Layby 151 this morning - better known as a favoured spot for Ring Ouzel - put on a great show. The "mountain blackbird" should be making an appearance any time now...