Away for a wee minibreak in Perthshire area. Left at 6am and arrived at Kinnoul Hill just outside Perth at 730. Drove up to the main car park form Kinfauns and the weather was nice enough but a bit breezy. The walk up to the point is a pleasant stroll through mixed woodland that is home to various birds, red squirrels, roe deer and various wildflower, although on this occasion we did not spot deer or squirrels! Spotted various birds including bullfinches, buzzards and a couple of nesting kestrels chasing a buzzard away from their nest!
The view form the top of Kinnoul hill up the River Tay is amazing and it is a great vantage point for looking over the Friarton bridge to Perth and beyond. We proceeded to admire the view whilst sitting on a bench having our breakfast and watching the various birds flying up and down the steep cliffs.
Can't believe I have never been up here before despite passing below on the Perth-Dundee road scores of times!
After the pleasant walk back to the car through these lovely woods we drove the short drive into Perth to the NTS Bracklin garden, another first for us! It is one of the smaller gardens the NTS have but oh what a garden! They have an amazing collection of mecanopsis (Himalayan blue poppies) and the garden is absolutely stuffed full of things. Had a great chat with the manager's wife, Annette - there are lots of benches that people have put there in memory of friends and relatives so it's a very special place to a lot of people - Annette said that some old guys put in a bench in memory of their friend and every year on the anniversary of the guy's birthday they would come and sit on the bench and drink a few G&Ts and have a toast to their friend! There were lots of wee birds, including robin, green finches.
Then went on to Scone Palace to see the fabled hawfinch (saw a programme about them on Landward) - thought they would be all over the place and easy to spot but alas that was not the case. Thought we saw one in the trees but not a 100% sure - they have a special cry "deek waree ree ree" according to the bird book which we thought we heard but again not totally sure. Even though we didn't get a definite sighting, we were rewarded with lots of other great things - saw goldfinches, robins, loads of chaffinches, pheasant and a red squirrel ran out right in front of us. The grounds were pretty spectacular and there were special trees in the pinetum. Nuthatches are also starting to be spotted in the palace grounds but we didn't see them David Douglas, plant hunter of the Douglas Fir fame, was a gardener at Scone Palace and he died very young, only 37, on a trip to Hawaii where he fell into a pit dug to catch wild boar.
After that had a very pleasant drive to our hotel in Blairgowrie (the Altamount - very nice!) - the hotel had peacocks, including a white one (he was apparently the bossy one!) and also three peacock chicks who were very cute - you wouldn't have guessed that they would grow into peacocks just by looking at them!
After a quick meal in the hotel, we then went out to see the Beavers at Bamff Estate (their website is brilliant - link to go in) - one of the main reasons for our trip. Paul Ramsay, the estate owner, showed us round and explained the background of why the beavers came to be there and all the work the beavers had been up to - they have been very busy beavers indeed, damming streams and felling trees. He also set up a camera trap on one of the areas the beavers had been working. We also spotted a couple of wild boar from the estate coming down the path. When we finally went to the big pond we were absolutely amazed, we couldn't believe it when we saw several beavers out. We were fairly close to them but we were very quiet and they didn't seem to mind us being there. They seemed to be eating grasses/sedges. They are wonderful animals, so peaceful and utterly captivating. Also saw jays, sandmartins and swallows flying about. Went to visit another smaller pond and saw another beaver there. Paul was so knowledgeable and told us all about the wildlife on the estate, including otters and pine martens - we also saw lots of chewed pine cones left by red squirrels. He is very wildlife friendly and it was great to meet a landowner with such an enlightened view. There is a holiday flat attached to the big house and we said we would definitely be back next year for a week-long visit - it would be a week in a wildlife paradise - what a holiday that would be!
Also spotted some more wild boar (including little boar-lets!) on the drive out and as if that wasn't enough, a hare ran out in front of us and ran along beside the car for a few seconds before jumping into a field. Also saw some deer too on the way back to the hotel. What an evening!
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