Heatherlea re-opened here in Scotland last Saturday with the first of our ‘Top 20′ birds and mammals holidays, and we’ve been watching eagles, otters and pine martens! Last weeks wildlife highlights included a family of Otters very close to the bus over on the West Coast, and Long-tailed Duck against the snowy landscape of the Moray Firth - what a great start to our 20th season!

Our recent North Ronaldsay and Orkney holiday proved quite exciting! Despite a long spell of strong westerlies our final days on North Ron came up trumps. We managed to relocate an American Golden Plover seen briefly in flight earlier by one of the Observatory staff. The simple instructions  were shout if you see any Plover with a black belly as we drove around looking. Within two minutes Angie pointed to a bird a few hundred yards away and exclaimed “do you think that’s it?”………….it was!

Then, hearing of a Sandhill Crane, only the third for Britain, on Orkney mainland we dashed from the airport on our way back to the ferry to find it. With just minutes to spare, we located it in a stubble field at Windwick!

It was a most enjoyable trip,  now just need to crack on with the trip report…..

John Poyner

We are delighted to announce that Heatherlea have been awarded FIVE STARS for our wildlife experience by visitScotland. This is the highest level of Quality Assurance award, only given to those operators found to be ‘Exceptional’ by the assessors. Heatherlea are only the second in Scotland to achieve this very sought-after standard, and we are the only tour operator on the Scottish mainland to hold the award. Here is an extract from today’s press release;

Kevin says; ‘the award of 5 stars is a fantastic achievement, well-earned by our dedicated team. We have always set high standards for our days in the field, and our birding guides and hotel staff thoroughly deserve this recognition’.

Heatherlea are about to celebrate their 20th season of wildlife watching holidays in the Scottish Highlands, and Kevin said the award couldn’t have come at a better time. ‘In difficult trading conditions, we are marketing very hard to ensure a great year for our 20th anniversary. We already have more advance bookings for Mountview Hotel in 2010 than at this stage in any previous year. This award will help confirm our strong position as market leaders in Scottish wildlife holidays’.

‘Independent accreditation is very important to us’, said Kevin, ‘because our customers are well-informed and discerning. They recognise good value and will always prefer high quality and good service. Our award can only be good news for Scottish tourism in general’.
ENDS

So are we! Heatherlea will be in Marquee 2, stands 60/61, so if you are coming, please pop by and see us. We will have shortbread biscuits, flapjacks and this year our own fudge, all hand-made in the Heatherlea kitchen here at Mountview Hotel. Another innovation this year is our own range of whiskies, so if you fancy a warming dram, just pop along.

Kevin’s talks include a new subject, ‘A year in the life of a Heatherlea guide’, with a few of the thrills and laughs from holidays he ran during the previous year. Listen out for the tale of the ‘White Hippos’, ‘Lonesome George and Super Mario’, and ‘Maria’ the tame Giant Antpitta amongst others. This talk is on Friday 21 at 12 noon, on Saturday and Sunday Kevin’s theme will again be ‘The Birds of Scotland - as seen by Heatherlea’. This talk is one of the most popular at the whole Birdfair, and is full of birds pics taken on Heatherlea holidays based here in Scotland. If you want to see the birds the way our guests see them, come to the talk!

Have a very enjoyable visit to the Birdfair, we can’t wait!
Emma, Amanda, Mike, Ian and Kevin

We are delighted to confirm that the Heatherlea Bursary in Environmental Sciences at Lancaster University will continue for another year.

Heatherlea make a payment to the University each August, and our Bursary is awarded by the Department of Biology to a candidate chosen by them, who is in genuine need of financial support. I usually meet the student during his or her first term to say hello, but after that we don’t interfere, and the individual receives a cheque without any obligation. We think this is the best way to do this, it isn’t fair to make the student write reports and jump through hoops when they really need the money to help them study.

Thanks to those of you who choose to holiday with us - a little bit of your holiday payment goes towards this Bursary.

This year’s student, Alex Parker, has strong connections with farming in the north of England, and has now gone on to begin a PhD at Lancaster. We feel sure that we have helped another very productive member of the community along the way.

Kevin

Our 2010 brochure was posted late last week, and guess what? Some holidays are full, and we’ve already got some new ones coming out which missed the deadline. Always happens, the thing is going obsolete before we’ve even posted it. Frustrating, but what the heck.

One cracker recently offered which we really had to accept was a week at Asa Wright in Trinidad, including international flights, top local guides and all meals and transport, for under £2000. We also go at a great time to see both adult Leatherback turtles laying eggs, and hatchlings heading for the sea. This is a great experience, right up there with the best things in wildlife watching.

We go to see the amazing Oilbirds, visit the Scarlet Ibis roost, spend a day in Nariva to see swamp species (big list this day!) and much more. A relaxing, unhurried itinerary with special neotropical wildlife at a very attractive price - the first new holiday AFTER our 2010 brochure was printed, available now and already filling. Please see the link if you fancy ‘doing Trini’, we don’t know if this price will be available again.

Kevin

Just back in the office after a thoroughly relaxing holiday in the Danube delta area of Romania. In my usual selfless manner I went along to experience the trip so that I could tell Heatherlea clients all about it, and enjoyed a really great time.

The houseboat part of the holiday is the most spectacular, and can perhaps best be described as a gentle, floating adventure filled with regular sightings of otherwise hard-to-see birdlife. Species such as Little Bittern, Purple Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Pygmy Cormorant, Glossy Ibis, Spoonbill, Squacco Heron, Ferruginous Duck and feldegg Yellow Wagtail can be seen in many European locations, but here we enjoyed spectacular views of all these on a regular basis, and this made the holiday a real treat. Elsewhere local knowledge produced a large colony of Rose-coloured Starlings, Greater Black-backed Gull, Paddyfield Warbler and Pied Wheatear, birds which were new to most of us. The constant sightings of Bee-eater, Hoopoe and Roller were also exceptional, I’ve never seen so many of each of these species. The two Pelicans, White and Dalmatian, were seen virtually every day, and feeding groups of White and regular fly-overs of both were a feature.

This adventure is not for those who enjoy intensive birding, or who get bored with regular sightings of birds already seen. It is great fun however if you want to enjoy peaceful days with these eastern species all around you.

One final thing, if you come to this part of the world, make sure your holiday is well organised; there are many tourist boats on the delta as more locals jump on the birding bandwagon, and not all feature a good birding itinerary or skilled local guides.

Before coming to Romania we had decided to leave this trip out of our listings for 2010, because rental prices of the boat were going up and we need to be careful in difficult times. Having had such a good time, we are rethinking and negotiating, and hope to include Romania in our new brochure, now close to its final production deadline - that’s how good it is!

Kevin

Sorry about the recent lack of entries to our blog, May and june are so busy ……

Last week produced a cracking bird on our ‘High Season across the Highlands’ holiday - adult Red-backed Shrike! Seen in the findhorn valley by our group, but now apparantly moved on, hey-ho.

Happy birding!

Kevin

We can’t believe it, but next year will be Heatherlea’s 20^th season of guided wildlife holidays. Based at Heatherlea Guest House in Boat of Garten, our first birding holidays began in 1991, and we soon filled this small, homely place to capacity. All the guiding was done by Kevin, whilst Caryl looked after Heatherlea and produced wonderful food. There was definitely a feeling of new frontiers being broached in those early days, and our first minibus was a green former prison van which really appreciated being liberated to the Scottish countryside!

In 1998 we finally responded to demand and moved four miles to Mountview Hotel here in beautiful Nethy Bridge. Demand immediately trebled as the British birding public declared their support – creature comforts and wildlife watching have been inseparable on Heatherlea holidays ever since! We renovated The Mountview the following winter, and by 1999 were running two minibuses from Nethy Bridge most weeks. Our GO FURTHER! extensions began in 2000, and some of our most innovative holidays are based on the Scottish islands – Britain’s ‘Outer Limits’! With the whole of northern Scotland as our ‘patch’, the opportunities for exciting wildlife destinations are endless, and our itinerary still changes every year as new places catch our imagination and old favourites are revisited.

We think we have been popular here at Mountview Hotel because we have always sought to achieve the highest independent standards. Heatherlea customers are very discerning, and we simply aim for the best available. Hotel accommodation, food, minibus transport, driving skills, days in the Heatherlea minibus and hospitality are all assessed by professionals, and we know our customers value this. We also constantly search for new attractions to increase the value we offer to you, and recent innovations include Swarovski optics free for you to borrow, and Heatherlea whiskies (which are not quite so free!). Next year will be our twelfth full season based at our lovely small Hotel. Our home and location are perfect for wildlife holidays, and we have welcomed many thousands of you over our threshold in that time. How lucky we have been!

Heatherlea Overseas Adventures began in 2003, and expanded in recent years as we carefully added new holidays to our range. We first visited Mallorca and Lesvos, still favourite destinations, and gradually branched out across Europe and ultimately across the globe. Each new holiday is painstakingly researched, because, like the trips themselves, we don’t rush things. Our intention is to get the detail right and deliver a memorable wildlife experience without being too ‘intensive’ or ‘birdy’. We frequently employ local guides, stay in eco-lodges where possible, and support communities and projects which make a difference.

We are very happy to have grown steadily over twenty years, top priority always being our love of wildlife and sharing it with you, our valued customer. What will the future hold? Who knows – the only thing we can say for sure is that we have been very fortunate so far, and hope to continue watching wildlife in the pleasure of your company for as long as possible.

Kevin and Caryl

Happy Easter from Heatherlea! I hope you are all enjoying the fantastic weather at the moment. The Heatherlea guides are over on the West coast with the group, hopefully enjoying similar sunny weather conditions to Nethy Bridge, and will return tomorrow evening after visiting Mull. Here are some of the highlights from last week’s group who enjoyed fabulous views of White-tailed Eagle while on Mull ….

Sunday
The day started with a visit to some local feeders where within minutes we were all enjoying fantastic views of Crested Tit feeding at close range, already the cameras were clicking. A short drive to the forest got us Crossbills as straight as we were out of the bus, sitting on top of a pine; the bills were clearly visible and quite large. Quite a good chance they were Scottish type, as there are not many Common around that area and they certainly were not Parrot Crossbill. After a short walk, we were heading back to the bus when we noticed several birds fluttering amongst the lichen clad branches to our left, Waxwings! Feeding on juniper berries and looking very at home in what must be a very similar habitat to their native breeding grounds.

Monday
After driving to Mull, and a stop on the way to admire a very obliging Black Grouse at the roadside, we were soon enjoying fantastic views of a stunning White-tailed Eagle perched at a favourite spot we know. Despite heavy persistent rain one we managed to view numerous great northerns from the van, and one bus was lucky enough to spot an Otter as it swam across a sea loch as we returned to the hotel.

In the evening we visited a secluded glen to search for Pine Martens. Our patience was rewarded by stunning views, one even coming with yards of the bus as we sat silently holding our breath.

Tuesday
The weather cleared and not long after leaving the hotel a Golden Eagle was spotted drifting along a ridge to our left. We jumped out and managed to get brief views before it sailed over the top, but it wasn’t long before it was back in view, drifting effortlessly through the wide misty glen, until it was lost from sight as it slipped in to the cloud base.

As we headed back towards home along a sea loch, we lost count of the number of Great Northern Divers we saw, many at exceptionally close range. Black Guillemot in stunning summer plumage were already at their breeding holes along an old rusting pier near the ferry, and a few Slavonian Grebes swam amongst them.

John Poyner