Now that we have a permanent base in the wonderful Royal Deeside, Cairngorms, we thought we’d pull together a short wildlife review of each month; the changes and highlights and maybe a few things to look forward to in the coming month.

April was a battle between winter and spring with winter taking first prize for much of it. Temperatures remained sub-zero at night for the vast majority of the month (23 nights in total with a low of -8.5oC) with several days of snow fall and a decidedly wintery feel in the air. It was also exceptionally dry with just 0.5” (1.25cm) of precipitation all month. You can get more info on the weather at the Braemar and Ballater,Scotland MET page

April proved to be an exceptionally cold month

Despite this many species braved the inclement weather in a bid to start the breeding cycle. The Pussy Willow flowers saw many early emerging insects such as Small Tortoiseshells, Bumblebees and Hoverflies gorging themselves, and taking advantage of this were the first returning migrant birds including Chiffchaffs. Other African wintering species such as Ring Ouzel, Osprey, Sand Martin and Swallow had also arrived back in small numbers at the beginning on April and moth numbers were still very high at night, that was until a huge High-Arctic system blanketed the UK in frigid air. Moth numbers didn’t recover all month, so we are expecting a big emergence in May as we see the first warmer nights. Many migrant birds either had to beat a hasty retreat, hunker down, or likely perish with the bitterly cold weather. Towards the end of the month Willow Warblers started to arrive to populate the birchwoods en masse and the first Tree Pipits had also appeared. Dotterels will make it back to the high tops of the Cairngorms after a winter in the arid environs of North Africa come May.

Small Tortoiseshell and White-tailed Bumblebee enjoy the pussy Willow flowers

The first Ring Ouzels returned from Africa to the valleys of the Cairngorms

The lengthening days triggered many of our wintering species to start heading back north, (despite the cold weather) and thousands of Pink-footed Geese flighted north over Deeside mid-month. The Mountain Hares and Ptarmigan both moulted out of their winter whites into a more mottled pattern (possibly prematurely!) and with enough warmth in the air to melt pond ice both frogs and toads got frisky in the puddles. The first of the arctic-alpine plants started to bloom and at lower levels the subtly-beautiful Bearberry started to pin-prick the heather with delicate pink blooms.

Pink-footed Geese migrate north over Lochnagar

If (and it’s a big if!) May starts to warm up then we could see an explosion of activity and life in Royal Deeside. There are still many tens of thousands of migrant birds to arrive. including the first Cuckoos, and we are expecting butterflies and moths to emerge with vigour as warmer days and nights advance so keep a look out for Orange Tip butterflies and maybe even Fritillaries towards the end of the month.

From a personal perspective it’s been an incredible month here and many thanks to all for the very warm welcome into Deeside. It was great to be part of the Swarovski Live Birding Event mid-month and we are really looking forward to getting out and about this month with a few guests to show them the wildlife highlights of Deeside as well as leading short tours to North Wales and Caithness where we hope to see Orcas amongst other things.