Another great month for photographing wildlife in August, not only in Edinburgh but also around Scotland. I’ve been away for about 8 days this month, photographing around the Black Isle, highland Perthshire & the Trossachs. The highlight of the Black Isle trip was the dolphins. I had 2 very early morning sessions and 2 evening sessions down at Chanonry Point, at Fortrose and one boat trip around the Cromarty Firth. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any dolphins leaping out of the water but it was a great thrill being so close to them on the shoreline (20 yards away).
I managed 2 trips to highland Perthshire around the Pitlochry & Blairgowrie area. The highlight of these outings was getting to photograph a pine marten, in a bit of daylight (8pm). A close second was spending about 5 minutes with a weasel, as it weaved its way, in & out of a pile of logs. I spent a couple of mornings on the River Ericht, near Blairgowrie, looking for beavers but I wasn’t successful on these occasions… there’s always next time! There were plenty ospreys on the River Tay & on some of the lochs in the Trossachs. However, they were always a bit too far away for photographing.
There have also been lots of kingfishers, great spotted woodpeckers, jays, buzzards, ospreys and red squirrels throughout my travels this month.
My time back in Edinburgh was spent on the Water of Leith where I managed to spot otters & kingfishers on every visit (14 visits). I’ve never seen the otters on as many consecutive visits. It maybe something to do with the low water levels, making them easier to spot. The otters have been around from sunrise through to about 10am and in the evening they’ve been coming out around 730-800pm. They have popped up at different places along the river almost every day, so I’m never quite sure what their movements are. The kingfishers, on the other hand, have been around most of the day, along a good part of the river from the Colinton Tunnel down to Bonnington.
Here are some photos from this month.
PLEASE CLICK ON ANY PHOTO BELOW TO ENLARGE THE SLIDESHOW