Best Birdwatching Sites in the Scottish Highlands
The author has used his experience and knowledge to put together an informative guide to the Scottish Highlands. The majority of featured tours work well, although some information is either out-of-date or, in some cases, missing. It may have been more useful to have taken each site by name, with its interesting birds featured on a seasonal basis.
The choice of sites is a little baffling. Easter Ross is hardly mentioned at all, while Tarbat Ness, Nigg Bay and Loch Eye are omitted entirely – a major error as these are three of the premier birding sites in northern Scotland.
The general layout of the book is good, with useful tips at the start of each tour itinerary mentioning food, fuel, tourist offices and other information. The maps would have been better if they were in colour to reflect habitat types; in their present form they appear rather washed out. The main map of Scotland and sites is a little misleading; for example if you look up Grantown-on-Spey, it suggests Tour 13 but the area is in fact covered under Tour 6.
Useful information includes the code of conduct for observing Capercaillie and Black Grouse, but there is no mention of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, which is an important piece of legislation for birders and others using the countryside in Scotland.
The Scottish bird list provided in the book is interesting, although it may have been better to display this information in the form of a yearly graph rather than a checklist, to allow readers to easily interpret whether the birds they hoped to see would be present during their planned visit.
Although it needs a bit of updating, this book is nonetheless a handy companion for visiting the Scottish Highlands throughout the year.
Tech spec
- Best Birdwatching Sites in the Scottish Highlands by Gordon Hamlett (Buckingham Press, Peterborough, 2005).
- 240 pages, distribution maps.
- ISBN 978 0953384099. Pbk, £15.95.
