This was our second Nikon School event guiding and teaching for Nikon. The workshop focuses on the fieldcraft and technical aspects of wildlife photography and focuses on eagles, otters, red squirrels, pine martens and anything else we see on our travels.
Eagles
We were lucky with eagles and had a number of low fly pasts from white tailed eagles along with a large number of distant golden eagles. Totals were 27 WTE and 31 GE. We saw a number of birds sitting on nests along with males bringing food for the female and at times swapping on the nest. Yes, this was just one week!
Otters
Otters are always unpredictable, but we had a good week overall with a number of good sightings.
We had a few major highlights which were mainly based around Lochaline. The hotel provided the backdrop for a large dog otter to bring a huge fish (Salmon or Sea Trout) ashore and eat it for around 30-40 minutes. Everyone got great shots along with a learning experience in low light photography.
Puffins
Always a highlight on the workshop is a trip over to Lunga to see the Puffins. Such a hoot every time and such wonderful birds. I tried to take some different photos to usual this time. Next time, challenge is slow shutter speed Puffins in flight to blur the wingbeats.
We always choose to go to Lunga with Turus Mara from Ulva Ferry
Red Squirrels
A few of the delegates chose to have a morning with Red Squirrels, which is always wonderful in our natural woodland environment. Despite some atrocious weather that morning, we had a fantastic few hours with a lovely squirrel and all got some good shots.
Species seen:
White tailed eagle x 27, Golden eagle x 31, Merlin x 5, Peregrine x 3, Hen Harrier x 12, otter x 5 and many lapwings, ringed plover, golden plover, common sandpiper, mistle thrush, swallows, sand martins, house martins, swifts, goldeneye, greenshank, redshank, fulmar, great skua, razorbill, black guillemot, guillemot etc!
