Brilliant Beavers!! Just so happened to be booked onto the Beaver Safari in the only wet evening of the week - of course!

As a wildlife photographer, I’d booked the tour in the hopes of some good photos, but as it was very wet and dull my hopes of capturing some good shots prior to leaving for the trip were getting increasingly low.

All the guests met up easily at the designated spot with guide Joan. She was lovely from the get-go. Really chatty and easy to get along with!

We then drove and parked our vehicles nearer to the riverside where we were hoping to spot some beavers. On our way to the river, the very knowledgeable Joan gave us lots of information about beavers, their habitat, their behaviours etc as well as talked in detail about the family that Perthshire Wildlife had been following on the river for years. It was very informative, and Joan would stop to show us things like the food that beavers would like and signs in the environment of their presence.

Then, despite the heavy rain, the tour set foot onto the riverbank and began crossing our fingers for a sighting or two!
Joan made sure that everybody was aware of how to behave, ensuring we all moved slowly and quietly and if anyone spotted anything in the river we would all stop and silently looked for any possible beavers. Joan knew the best spots for spotting them in clearings along the river bank, and knew their behaviour patterns really well. Joan also was also really conscious that we did not cause any disturbance to any beavers we would come across.

About half an hour or so into the tour, we got our first, distant sighting. Joan was very good at explaining how she’d spotted it and ensured everybody had seen it swimming quietly near to the opposite river bank. And from that moment onwards it was just beaver after beaver and we ended up with sightings up in double figures, with at least 8 different individual beavers spotted throughout the tour.

Joan got the group sat in a brilliant spot where we were blessed with several really close swim-bys by the beavers, once with a beaver carrying some greenery in its mouth. And we were also incredibly lucky that one beaver actually got out of the water onto the small stony patch right infront of the group, the front people could almost have touched it. Joan had spotted it heading towards us and had reminded everybody to remain absolutely still and silent whilst the beaver was coming in, out the water and until it was a good distance away and with her knowledge and advice we were able to share such a memorable moment without causing any disturbance to the beaver at all.

Joan was an amazing guide, and the beavers were brilliant!

I will definitely be going on another tour in the future if I’m up in Perthshire again as it was incredible and well worth the money.

Despite the low light and rainy conditions, Joan got us in position for some such close encounters with the beavers that I was able to get some lovely photographs that I’m really pleased with ️

Really educational evening We had a really interesting evening. We saw several beavers including one pretty close up. We also saw an otter that has been showing a predatory interest in the lodge and gets chased away.

Jenny was great - we would never have spotted anything with out her! She was able to explain so much about the beavers and we learned so much about re-wilding, river quality and other environmental issues.

Even although it was June it was not warm so best to wrap up well!

Beavers Galore - Excellent Trip. The experince from booking to actually doing the visit went like clockwork. The instructions for meeting the guide for the evening were very detailed and easy to follow. This included contact numbers in the event of any problems. The walk was done on an excellent evening along the banks of the Ericht where there are several really good viewing points. We saw beavers almost right away and were able to observe them for lengthy periods of time. Our guide Joan was brilliant and explained how the beavers were breeding etc in the area. We were there for about two and a half hours most of which watching beavers and did the whole visit in a relaxed and very informative fashion. Would reccomend.

An excellent evening with the Beavers and Otters What an excellent evening out with the wildlife and our guide Danièle. Very informative, lots of great information on everything we saw and more. Highlight was the Beavers both in the water and on the banks, but we also saw otters, deer and assorted birds along the way. Highly recommended trip and we would definitely go again when we are next in Scotland !