Highland Perthshire Wildlife Festival

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Thought this might be of interest to somebody.

Highland Perthshire Wildlife Festival

www.wildconnections.org.uk

A new wildlife festival, designed to showcase Highland Perthshire’s potential as a wildlife
tourism destination, will launch this Autumn from 9th – 17th October, offering over 30 events to
wildlife enthusiasts in its first year.
This year, the range of events on offer are strongly slanted towards to showcasing the area’s
mammals, with badgers, red squirrels, wild cats, pine martens, bats and red deer playing
starring roles in many of the activities.
Raptor watchers will not be disappointed with a series of specialist walks led by members of the
Tayside Raptor Study Group taking place throughout the week.
For those wildlife photography enthusiasts, award winning photographer Peter Cairns will be
leading master classes during the festival as well as sharing his adventures as a wildlife
photographer in a talk entitled “New Frontiers”. Set against a backdrop of spectacular imagery,
Peter reveals not only some of the most memorable encounters from ten years as a
professional wildlife and conservation photographer, but how those encounters have shaped
his thoughts about our own, changing relationship with the natural world. From photographing
birds in his own back garden, to his adventures with Wild Wonders of Europe, the world's
largest photographic initiative.
Adrian Davis, a wildlife tourism specialist and the driving force behind the festival, has been
working tirelessly over the last two years to bring together a strong group of wildlife
organisations to mount the 9 days of events. His efforts have paid off and the festival is
supported by an entire cavalcade of wildlife enthusiasts including WWF Scotland, Scottish
Wildlife Trust, Wild Scotland, Wild Outdoors, Perthshire Big Tree Country, Forestry Commission
Scotland, Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust and Perth & Kinross Council.
To enable the festival to develop, it has secured funding from a number of sources including
LEADER Rural Tayside, The Onaway Trust, Forestry Commission, Perth & Kinross Council, and
Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust.
Adrian Davis, commented “We are very excited about launching the festival this Autumn. We
have a rich tapestry of wildlife in Highland Perthshire which is especially prevalent at this time
of year and with the market for wildlife tourism clearly growing, we have a tremendous
opportunity to demonstrate to people the wild beauty of visiting Highland Perthshire, not just
in the Autumn but throughout the year. We want to ensure Wild Connections becomes a
destination event in every wildlife lover’s calendar.”
For further information on the festival and the series of events on offer visit

www.wildconnections.org.uk
 
Well that went down well ;)

It's in it's infancy but being local I'll be keen to see how the idea moves on after this first year.

The idea is certainly worthwhile and it would be nice to see some of the local schools involved.
 
Looks like a reasonably priced decent day out, did you go Phil?
 
They need to get publicity in the national press and not just the local papers.
Wildlife tourism in Scotland is already worth a great deal of money and there is untapped potential.
 
I did read about it but thought it a bit expensive. I was telling a stalker friend from Dunkeld about it last week. He knew nothing of it, which would suggest they maybe need to look at how they advertised it.
 
No I didn't go.

I was at the in-laws up at Loch Tay last Sunday and read about it in the Breadalbane Quair which is a small local newsletter. Obviously it had started by then and now after a week at work it finishes tomorrow.

Places were very limited for most things so perhaps that's why they kept adverstising low key.

I'll wait and see if they're planning anything for next year.
 
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I was off last week so decided to go to the Peter Cairns Photo thing, was based mainly for Beginners so was perfect for me. Was intresting and he showed a few pics and explained how he got them etc then off out to take some pics. The prob with the week was the advertising of it there was a bit of a problem with it lets just say.
 
Cheers Neil

I'll keep an eye out for next year.
 
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