Becoming Birdgirl: How author caught the birdwatching bug in Scotland
Scotland has been a favourite birdwatching destination for Mya-Rose Craig and her family over the years.
“My earliest memories of Scotland are looking for capercaillie and osprey,” she smiled. “I always look out for golden eagles while I’m there. In terms of twitching, it’s very good. When I was a kid, we went all the way to Orkney on a weekend to look for a crane that had flown over from America. We saw it and still made it back in time for school on Monday!
“As for other favourite birdwatching moments, in the UK it was when I saw a little auk in Weymouth last December. It was the last UK bird I’d still to see and it was becoming embarrassing admitting I’d never seen one. It was a very cute bird.
“Another memorable moment was seeing the harpy eagle in Brazil. I’d been trying to see it since I was eight and it took nine years. It’s ginormous. That was also the day when I reached the number of seeing half of the world’s bird species.
“My mum says she’s never seen me smile as wide as I did that day. I wondered if I was ever going to see it, but it was worth the wait.”