Scotland Through New Eyes - A Wildlife Photographer's Journey

Growing up, Scotland was simply a family summer holiday destination for me. I remember the landscapes, the weather, the car ferry, the long journeys and being outside a lot. But when you're a child, your world looks different. A forest is a forest, the sea is the sea. All the birds kind of look the same. Now, two decades later, I'm returning to some of the places that shaped my childhood, but seeing them from a totally new perspective. A lot of wildlife photography is about spending time in a place and learning to recognise the small changes around you. And that's made me realise that sometimes you don't need to travel somewhere new to see it differently. You just need to go back and pay closer attention. So I've come to the Scottish Highlands to visit my mother. Now, this place is very special to me because we used to spend loads of our family summer holidays up here, and I have some very fond memories of it. From flying kites on Dornoch Beach to exploring the countryside, I've always been drawn to animals and the outdoors. One of my earliest memories at Dunrobin Castle was when I saw my first owl during a falconry display. Looking back now, I realise that moment probably stayed with me more than I knew at the time. I count myself very lucky to be able to show you some behind-the-scenes footage of this beautiful place. Dunrobin Castle sits on the east coast of Sutherland, overlooking the Dornoch Firth. The castle is surrounded by extensive gardens that contrast with the wild highland landscape beyond. Meet Fionn, the resident falconer's dog. He is an expert at hunting butterflies. Life seems to move at a completely different pace here. There's less noise, fewer distractions, and a much stronger sense of being connected to the nature and people around me. It's such a stark contrast to the busy life I lead back home in Luxembourg. Now my dad loves cars and so we used to travel up here regularly to watch the old time at Dunrobin Castle and I always used to sneak down here into the castle gardens to watch the falconry show instead. My mum has raised Echo, the barn owl, since he was a little chick. Over the years they have developed this incredible bond based on patience, trust and understanding. Bonaparte, the little owl, is the sassiest of the bunch. He is suspicious of anything and anyone but he sleeps in my mum's handbag where it's nice and cozy. George, the Bengal eagle owl, is one of my favourite birds at Manor Falconry. She's absolutely huge with big wings and powerful talons and she's such a magnificent flyer. There are certain places in Scotland that hold a very special meaning for me. I grew up with two brothers but my older brother Alex sadly passed away at the age of 21. Coming back to places like these brings back memories of the time we spent here together as a family. I've been to Scotland so many times and every single time I come here I get excited. I mean it's easy to see why. It's just you have so much space, so much beautiful landscape, you just feel like you can breathe. Just wherever you look it's just stunning. I love it. There was heavy looking going on in this part of Rose Hall so I got concerned and I looked into it. It seems to be part of a 10-year plan to regenerate the forest by removing non-native conifers and restoring areas with native woodland. But the plan ends in October this year and I genuinely hope it's renewed because right now this place feels quite desolate. I did find a wild beehive in a tree cavity and I really hope that for now life here can cling on. Now my wildlife photography journey started about three years ago exactly in these castle gardens. Now my very first pictures of the falcons were literally like a little dot in the sky and I was super chuffed to even have caught them because they're really really fast and it was a great big challenge and so I decided that I really wanted to get better at it. Now that I'm back here watching the show I can really see the progress that I have made over these past three years. Andrew is the resident falconer here at Don Robin Castle. He's been doing falconry since he was very young and over the years he has built up a wealth of knowledge and experience working with birds of prey. I think this guy's gonna do really well but being a peregrine they just look great when their eyelids are still that pale blue. You'll never see that look again. It'll be yellow forever more after that and when they're real young the feet are blue too and just by sitting here like this called manning, the more time you can do that the quicker they come around. Have you found any wild sparrowhawks yet to kill? No. You know what have you ever heard of a plucking post? No. So what you'll come across is usually a low-level stump somewhere. Check them all out. When you see one of them covered in lots of feathers that's where the sparrowhawks will be prey. They have a plucking post and when you find one of those you know sit yourself in there at dawn or dusk during the night, sleep in there and then just keep your eye on it and get the camera set up on that and then as soon as it lands with its stuck you can start filming. But that's what you look out for with a sparrowhawk and sometimes a goshawk if you're lucky enough. Wildlife photography is a long learning curve. A lot of what I've learned has come from other people but also from making my own observations and simply spending time in the field. Every experience adds to that knowledge and gradually shapes the way that I see and photograph wildlife. Progress is slow though because wildlife follows the seasons, nesting, breeding, raising young. If you miss an opportunity you may have to wait an entire year for the next one. And there's a lot of planning involved but just as much can come down to just being in the right place at the right time. These harbour seals for example, I hadn't planned to film them at all. I happened to stop by at low tide when they come onto the sandbanks and a local passerby told me it was actually unusual to see them this close to the shore so I just got lucky. And that's wildlife photography. A balance between preparation, patience and being ready to take advantage of whatever happens in front of you. On my way to the west coast and I just had to stop to show you this view. Look at that. Sunrise. I learned that a big part of wildlife photography is sitting and waiting. You might set out with an idea of what you want to see but while you're sitting there you start wondering whether you're in the right place at the right time in the right conditions and sometimes something completely unexpected turns up. So while I was waiting for otters to show I saw my first ever gooseander. Gooseanders are a fascinating example of how wildlife can return and expand its range naturally. They first began breeding in Scotland in the late 19th century and over the following decades gradually spread across much of the country and today they're a familiar sight on many of Scotland's rivers and locks. So while I didn't see the otters I came looking for I ended up seeing another animal that I'd never photographed before. I was just driving down the road there. It was just a golden eagle that flew over me. Incredible. Gloughfleet Nature Reserve which is a big estuary where the sea goes out and the birds come in to feed. It's a beautiful stunning place. Gloughfleet is one of those places in Scotland that feels incredibly rich in wildlife despite being relatively small. The tidal basin fills and empties twice a day exposing mud flats that provide an important feeding ground for waders such as Dunlin, Rechang and Curlew particularly during the winter months. And in spring and summer the lock takes on a different character with ospreys returning to fish in the estuary and terns arriving to breed. So depending on the time of the year and even the state of the tide the wildlife you encounter here can be completely different. Just now the light is not very good for what I want to do. It's just shining right towards me so I'm getting lots of glare from the water. It's really hot as well so lots of heat haze over the water and my images aren't that great. So I checked out the weather conditions and the tide table for tomorrow and I think what I'll do is I'll be back in the morning. I think the ambience here is going to be very different and we can really see the difference between the two. It's going to be interesting. Let's see what we get in front of the vents. Gorgeous weather I've had all week. Couldn't have wished for more. Back at Lock Fleet. Completely out. Everything is mud flat and the atmosphere is completely different to yesterday. We can actually see so much better because there's no glare from the sun. So you see all this grass area. This looks like it's dry land but it's not. When the tide comes in all of this will be filled with water, salt water from the sea. So it looks dry but you have to be careful where you step because you could end up ankle deep in mud. I don't want that on my drive back. The low tide was at six o'clock so this is as far as we go and right now it's 7 30 or something and you have these channels where the water just flows by. Camera fainted. Oh no. But we've got an osprey. We've got an osprey on camera. It's just so casually flying past. Wow that was the first time that I've ever seen an osprey and I think it even had a catch. I will check the footage later on. I didn't expect it to be happening so soon. I just arrived here. Great spot. Very pleased with that. Now ospreys were actually declared extinct in Britain in the early 20th century and there's been great efforts to reintroduce them here on the island but they need places like these. They need undisturbed nature. They need protected areas so they can thrive and we need these areas too. Looking back at my childhood, Scotland was about family, holidays and adventure. Those memories are still a big part of what brings me back here and places like these will always be connected to the people and experiences that shaped me. But wildlife photography has changed the way that I see the natural world. It has taught me to slow down and to notice things more and the more I've learned the more my priorities have shifted. It's no longer just about taking the photograph but understanding the wildlife and habitats behind it and thinking about what their future might look like. The places I remember from my childhood are still here but I see them differently now. And perhaps that's the biggest lesson I'm taking away from this journey because the closer we look the more we begin to understand what we have and why it matters that we protect it.