We have been busy this winter working on lots of unique experiences for you to enjoy in 2011. Here’s just a few of our NEW highlights!

New Raptor Viewpoint

Golden Eagle, Merlin, Osprey, Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, wandering White-tailed Eagle, Short-eared Owl, Hen Harrier and Goshawk … the area northwest of Nethy Bridge is certainly rich in birds of prey. Our private estate land in this area is just that, privately owned and only available to Heatherlea. We have been seeking Capercaillie here for 16 seasons, seeing the birds about 30 - 40% in 2010.

In 2011 we have new access to a fantastic lookout in this special place, with wonderful views for many miles around. We can see nearby slopes and flat-topped moorland which large raptors use to cross the north of Scotland, distant forests and the peaks of the Cairngorms. Below, the A9 trunk road takes unsuspecting birders right past, without ever realising how good the viewing is in this elevated location. You don’t have to walk, we can now park here in the middle of the day and enjoy unbeatable scenery as we have our lunch and scan the hillsides. You won’t get this view anywhere else, and on a sunny day it really is special. Our viewpoint will be active, weather permitting, each week from April 2011

Farmland Birding with an eco-friendly approach.
The Spey Valley in Nethy Bridge is a very important site for passerines, and Twite, Brambling, Linnet, Yellowhammer and Redpoll can all be seen here throughout the year. In winter and early spring, large flocks gather on the corn ‘stooks’ placed by the farmer, and later as the birds disperse, some stay to breed.

People tend not to think of waders as being important in this area, but as you can see, the fields are rich in nutrients from winter flooding, making this farmland area near Nethy Bridge one of the single most important places for wading birds in the UK, with a very high density of breeding Lapwing, ….. and many wintering birds too. With wintering Greylag and Pinkfeet on the fields, and breeding Goldeneye and Buzzard in the woodland, this part of the strath, where ancient Caledonian forest stretches right down to the wetlands, is a beautiful and important place to visit.

We will come here during many weeks in 2011, and as this absorbing destination is only two miles from our Hotel, it is convenient and easy too.

New Feeders
The Scottish weather wears out our feeders, and so we have organised some new and more substantial ones at the front of the Hotel. Already the birds are finding them irresistible, with even Waxwings (eying up some rotten apples), and Long-tailed Tits taking an interest.
 

Swarovski Optics
We are delighted to continue our very successful relationship with Swarovski into 2011, which means you can borrow a pair of these top quality binoculars FREE OF CHARGE whilst holidaying at Mountview Hotel with Heatherlea.

We are expecting supply of the latest ‘Swarovision’ products in January 2011, so reserve your pair now – availability will definitely be limited!
 

Badgers with Jonny

Fancy watching badgers just a few feet away, inside a nice warm house perhaps with a cup of tea? We are delighted to announce Badgers with Jonny! Popular Heatherlea guide Jonny Pott has been busy tempting his local badgers to browse in his garden, and after a few trial sessions last year, we are pleased to launch this unique experience EXCLUSIVELY to Heatherlea guests. Some advantages;
- The animals come really close, just a few feet away.
- We won’t visit unless there is a better than average chance of seeing Badgers, which are monitored on a daily basis.
- A warm friendly environment means you won’t be cold or cramped. Loo facilities available!
- No walking across muddy fields!
- You pay no more! There is no extra charge to Heatherlea guests for this service.
- Because this very personal service is just for you, we pick the right day to go, and you won’t have to compete for space or wait for other groups to leave.

   

Badgers with Jonny begins around late February when the Badgers waken, we give them a rest in high summer (mid June – late August) when the animals are active very late in the evening, then begin again in early autumn through till hibernation in late October. Join any full week at Heatherlea in 2011within the appropriate dates, and if Badgers are showing we will take you to see them!

Please note, this service is on private land and is not available unless you are staying with Heatherlea.
 

Whether you are new to Heatherlea or have been with us many times, there is lots more to see and do in 2011!

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

Coming to the Birdfair this year? So are we! Heatherlea will be in our usual place in Marquee 2, so please make a point of dropping round for a chat, you will be very welcome. As always we will be bringing ‘a taste of Heatherlea’ to keep hunger at bay, and would love to see you.

If you’ve been to Heatherlea in Nethy Bridge, you will know all about the exclusive Heatherlea range of beers, brewed for us Cairngorm Brewery. In addition we also have our range of Heatherlea whiskies! Try our 10 yr old Speyside Malt 'Old Henry', our 8yr old Islay Malt 'Golden Eagle', or our blended 'Wee Crestie'. We will be holding daily whisky tasting sessions on our stand, listen out for the annoucments at the fair – slainge!

We believe in supporting the birdfair with real money, and Heatherlea will once again donate a Heatherlea holiday to the auction, and sponsor the Talks Marquee. This year Kevin’s talks will feature some of the offbeat events in a year of his guiding life, with another talk focusing on ‘The birds of Scotland as seen by Heatherlea’, a popular subject which has set record attendance levels for talks in Marquee 2 for each of the last three years.

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

In January we issued our latest newsletter detailing new holidays and all the latest Heatherlea Information. We also included a Heatherlea Caption competition and were delighted with the response. We received many amusing and inventive entries and had a difficult job picking the winners! Two lucky winners won a ‘Bring a friend Birding’ prize for their efforts, and the winning captions are detailed below.

WINNING CAPTIONS

"FOR THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER SEE YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED HEATHERLEA" D S Cambridgeshire

"I SEE THAT NESSIE HAS DECIDED TO FIND OUT WHAT A FIVE STAR WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE REALLY MEANS" D M Herts

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

Heatherlea (Scotland) Ltd, Nethy Bridge, have long been one of the best known names in Scottish birdwatching holidays. We are today delighted to announce they we have been awarded a coveted five star grading 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 to achieve this very high level, and indeed the only wildlife operators on the Scottish mainland to be awarded five stars.

Heatherlea co-founder Kevin Shaw said ‘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, and 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’.

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

Early in September we received our regular visit from the AA Inspector. The Mountview passed with flying colours, both for Hotel accommodation and for good food. The official report says;

'This was a most enjoyable visit and obvious strengths include attentive service and genuine hospitality. The impressive merit score of 78% shows the hotel has the potential for a grade of three stars'. Our Restaurant food is confirmed yet again at ‘two rosette’ standard, a high grade enjoyed by very few places in Speyside. The same chefs cook for all our birdwatchers too!

We take this independent assessment very seriously. Anyone can make claims for their accommodation and food, but VisitScotland and the AA are two senior bodies who assess Heatherlea in a proper, unbiased manner. This independent view from industry experts is worth a lot more, we suggest, than the opinion of the person offering the service. We have never met anyone who doesn’t care about these things when they arrive for their holiday!

We are also pleased that our wildlife experience in the Heatherlea minibus has FOUR STARS from VisitScotland. All these standards are readily available to every holiday operator, so please compare Heatherlea to anyone, and let us know if you find a comparable holiday at a higher standard – we want to improve further.

Two of our popular front of house team have retired after years of loyal and hard working service. We held a celebration BBQ party, with presentations and speeches, toasts were made and poetry was read.

Morag wrote ‘How can I thank you for such a lovely party last night? It was a very happy evening and I very much appreciate all the work involved. I will remember my happy days with you all at The Mountview, and may you, the team, keep going together as you do have something special!’

Things continue as normal at Mountview, as we welcome back Lucka (wife of Heatherlea guide John Poyner) as Supervisor, and Renata after the birth of baby Emilia, to our enthusiastic and capable team. Morag and Renata are pictured here.

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

Heatherlea resident guide on the west coast of Scotland, Matt Wilson, has shown many of our guests Pine Marten, Otter, Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle over the years. We always have a great day with Matt, who lives and works intimately with wildlife here and seems to know their every move. This year, Matt and the wildlife became even closer, as a female Pine Marten decided to raise her family in his loft! A camera was soon installed, and some of the fascinating results can be seen tonight on BBC Springwatch.

Matt says 'It was fascinating to watch the mother bringing voles and small birds into the loft, to be quickly snatched by the kittens. As the young martens grew, we could always tell from the noise when they were playing - it can be confirmed that they sleep during the day and play at night!'

We believe that this filming of a marten's den inside human habitation is unique, and with 64 hours of film taken so far we are hopeful that we can edit the film for you all to see in the future. In the meantime though, why not join Matt yourself? Matt will be present as usual on our 'Top 30' holidays in summer and also on our 'Top 20' holidays in October and November. Although these kittens will be long away from the den, we have a virtually 100% record for seeing martens over the last few years -you can see our itinerary on this website, and we still have a few places - come and see for yourself!

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

The new Heatherlea blog is up and running, please travel to our home page and click the link. We will occasionally update this 'Latest News' page, but the blog gives more options and you can reply and ask questions too, so our efforts will mainly be there. Hope you like it!

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

Back in November 2007 we enjoyed a great holiday in Kenya, remembered as the 'White Hippo Adventure' by those who took part. During our visit to Lake Baringo, we met Julius and Cliff, two top-notch local birders who run a guiding service with all earnings going to their community. We were all struck by the ability of these two local experts, and the enthusiasm of the community for wildlife as a source of tourist income. We were surrounded by children, who knelt barefoot in the dusty scrub while Julius showed them the African Scops Owl in his battered field guide, to confirm the views they had enjoyed through Kevin's scope. What was missing though was optical equipment. Julius and Cliff had two pairs of broken bins, each with just a tiny part of one lens working.

We resolved to help them - with proper equipment they could do even better, and so chances of increasing their earnings and caring for wildlife would be even greater. Kevin made a promise to donate two pairs of good quality bins and a telescope to the community, and regular Heatherlea readers will remember that we carried the story in our Newsletter written early in December 2007.

Almost as soon as we got home however, political problems made it very difficult to move goods into Kenya. With the help of friends inside the country and at BirdLife International, we eventually managed to get the equipment into Nairobi, only to face further delays and payments as we tackled customs and other duties. Yesterday, after a full year, Cliff and Julius finally took delivery of the vital binoculars and telescope they had waited so patiently to receive. Here are some photos sent to us by Nature Kenya, who kindly held the goods until the pair could make the journey to receive them.

Naturally we are absolutely delighted. In late 2010 we hope to organise a return to Kenya, which amongst other things will include big game at Masai Mara, and a visit to the community at Lake Baringo. After all, we were shown Heuglin's Courser, African Scops Owl, Greyish Eagle Owl and White-tailed Nightjar amongst many others, all in a couple of hours and in broad daylight - well worth a birding visit. In the meantime, we hope Julius and Cliff enjoy using the equipment, and that any readers of this note will choose them if visiting the area. Please contact Heatherlea for details, anyone can hire their services.

What a pleasure at this time of year to hear some good news!

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website

A genuine and heartfelt Christmas wish and thank you to all our customers, not least those who have chosen Heatherlea for 2009 or are planning to do so. In these difficult times, we are working hard to ensure our holidays offer the same value next year as in those gone by, and our key team are already in place. Our excellent chefs Lee and Graeme will be here again, and familiar faces around the Lounge, Dining Room and Bar areas will be Tina, Fiona, Lucka and Christine. Long-serving (suffering!) Head Cook Margaret will be on hand early in the morning, and Amanda, Emma and Isabel will be keeping Kevin in order in the office. Caryl is already making jams and jellies, and also organising a refit of part of the public area. Our guides are picking their favourite holidays, and Ian, Jonny, John, Josef, Dave and Mike are all excited about next year's birding and wildlife prospects. Altogether there are over twenty of us in Scotland alone, here to help you enjoy a fantastic experience in the Highlands. Our forward bookings already guarantee that every week will be running, and we can't wait for our 19th great birding season to begin.

The Red Squirrels are around and inside our feeders, the mountains are covered in snow, and the berries are attracting winter thrushes. We hope the holiday period brings everything you might wish for yourselves, and look forward to your company sometime soon. Merry Christmas!

Heatherlea Christmas Party

This feed was drawn from the Heatherlea website