Wildlife of the 2025 Year

The bare branches of the winter trees offer no hiding place for the small birds, which made possible this picture of a tiny, shy goldcrest.

Because I don't keep records of wildlife sightings it is difficult for me to estimate whether populations have increased or decreased. However, I can say with some certainty that, with the possible exception of the oystercatchers, the number of shore birds has decreased since last year. This is a curlew against a backdrop of the lighthouse at Tarbat Ness.

2025 will be memorable for an explosion in the number of adders and for a single sighting of....

....a kingfisher near Loch Lunndhaid, a long way north of its normal range.

Early in the year the roe deer were coming close to the houses - this picture was taken from our kitchen window - but by the year's end the deer had almost disappeared.

It's also some time since we saw red deer close to Golspie, the population having been culled to make way for trees.

We don't know what has hit the rabbit population in the fields near us. Early in the year on a typical walk we'd see ten or more within a few hundred metres of our house, some with unusual white markings. Recently they can only be seen in local gardens. By contrast, the red squirrel population has thrived this year, mostly thanks to the support of the home owners who live near the sites where they were re-introduced some years ago.

Some insect populations have faced an almost catastrophic decline. The only butterfly which has done well is the speckled wood, and our carefully selected wildlife-friendly shrubs, such as verbena, michaelmas daisies and buddleia, have done little to draw butterflies into our garden.

Despite having a pond in the middle of it, the one thing we have not managed to attract to our garden are the dragonfly and damselfly populations. This may not have been helped by the pond drying up for most of the summer.

2025 was a relatively good year for fungi, which, as usual, brought with them the agonies of whether or not to try to identify them. In general, I've given up on identification, freeing myself for the simple enjoyment of their variety and beauty.

The one group which don't seem to have been in decline are the local wildflowers and, of all of them, the orchids continue to give the greatest pleasure. This is a common spotted which, logically enough, is the rarest of the five species we've found here.

Some wildlife remains elusive. It is years since we saw a hedgehog or a fox and, despite leaving signs of their presence, we have yet to see a pine marten. We've had distant views of eagles but we would love to have a close encounter with one of the sea eagles which are reputed to have moved into the area.

The wildlife is precious to us. Let us hope that 2026 sees some of the more threatened species making a come-back.