We’d had a trip to Aviemore planned for a few months and based our booking around a) availability and b) the best chance of snow.
Well we certainl werent disappointed! The first sign of snow was on Monday afternoon when light flurries were streaming in on bitter northerly winds. Monday evening saw about 3 inches deposited in Aviemore and even more the further up you went.
6inches in Rothirmurchus Forest and at least a foot on the top of cairngorm Mountain.
I’d booked into a hide in the hope of photographing red squirrels but the cold snap proved too much and they chose the comfort of their drey instead. Common woodland birds as well as the enigmatic crested tits more than made up for the squirrel no-show.
Plenty of mountain hare tracks on view on Cairngorm Mountain but no actual hares. The snow buntings posed nicely in the car park.
The undoubted wildlife highlight was a perched golden eagle no more than 50m from the railway track, which took flight as we passed. We only saw it for a matter of seconds but wow what a bird!
