Birdwatching
The Dornoch Firth’s varied habitats – mudflats, dunes, saltmarsh, sandy beaches and links – provide an ideal environment of a range of birds.
Every month of the year brings opportunity for different sightings with common, arctic and little terns in summer and whooper swans, greylag geese and long tailed duck in winter. Oystercatchers are year-round residents. Late summer brings less common visitors like ruff and wood sandpipers.
Take to the hills and moorlands of Sutherland and you may see eagle, peregrine falcon, merlin, raven and even ptarmigan. Below the tops you might spot curlew, dunlin and golden plover, whilst near hill lochs you may see common sandpipers.
The woodlands are rich is species too, with chaffinch and willow warbler, blue, coal and great tits all being common. Wood warbler, tree pipit and redpoll may be spotted. Owls, sparrowhawks and buzzards can be found in the conifer plantations. Many other varieties may be seen around Sutherland’s many habitats.