September has certainly come around fast but in many respects it has been welcome given that we have received much better weather than the summer supplied us with!

Wildlife is in a bit of a transition at the moment here at Rothiemurchus. After a tough year the Ospreys have all but disappeared making their long, arduous and somewhat dangerous journey back to West Africa. Poor spring weather really took its toll on the survival rate of the osprey chicks this year with several nests locally struggling to hold any chicks. We hope that next year serves up better fortunes for them. Saying that we had some fantastic early morning osprey sessions this year with one group of photographers being treated to a record 37 dives in one morning!

The deer are slowly edging towards the rutt. These young stags are starting to test each other now that they have lost their velvet. In another few weeks if the wind behaves you can hear the stags roaring from the surrounding hills and upper forest areas. The calves that were born earlier in the year certainly don’t look like calves anymore and are becoming more and more independent from their mothers.

The squirrels are still scurrying about hiding the nut staches ready for winter. It is believed that each squirrel can bury between 150-200 secret food stores for the winter! However at present they are still full of life chasing each other up and down the pine trees that cover Rothiemurchus. Our red squirrel hide really has been a fantastic spectacle this season with our new jumping squirrel setup keeping the photographers and squirrels themselves entertained!