Riding where only golden eagles dare

SCOTLAND'S WILDLIFE: David Bellamy

LET'S start at the top, riding the thermals where only Golden Eagles dare, over Ben Lawers, Scotland's most important botanical mountain. A magnet to everyone who loves wild places and wildflowers - Mountain Avens, Globe Flower and other tough survivors of the last ice age that only began to draw to a close some 10, 000 years ago.

Oh to move with eagle ease across to the black woods of Rannoch where Scots Pine still reigns supreme....a snapshot of what much of Scotland was like before an evolving mix of stone, bronze and iron age farmers aided by a wetter climate tipped the natural balance from forest to heather moorland and blanket bog.

Peat healed the treeless land, protecting it from erosion while providing grazing for great herds of Red Deer, Monarch of all the Glens and the flavours of the malts. So came the colourful landscapes, buzzing with the prospect of the best of Heather Honey and Red Grouse, spiced with a wealth of wild fruits blaeberry, cranberry, cloudberry, raperdandies and rowan, rich sources of health-full antioxidants for birds, beasts and people alike.

Otters and brown trout signal the health of Scotland's burns and rivers; bight waters of rills and riffles stir the oxygen in cleansing the gravels of age-old spawning grounds, while waterfalls and rapids provide the annual spectacle of leaping salmon returning to mate and lay eggs.

Male and female plants of Sweet Gale scent the air with nature's own brand of midge repellent. Wisps of Snipe stir the morning mists as the elusive Water Vole (today, Britain's rarest mammal) teach their young to swim.

In summer, wet birch woodlands become bejewelled with marsh and butterfly orchids while in autumn guise they host a great variety of fungi that help feed the dwindling populations of red squirrel.

Thanks to the vision of groups like the Scottish Wildlife Trust, RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage, more of these landscapes are being stitched back into better working order with visitor centres to enthral and educate.

Thanks to the hard work of such partnerships, the osprey which were under threat, can now be seen fishing over ever larger areas of the countryside.

And on down the river as it meanders through meadows alive with geese and other waterfowl. Some are residents but others take their winter holidays here, away from the cold of the continent into these lands warmed by what we used to call the Gulf Stream.

Estuaries are special places of rest and refreshment in long migratory flights both north and south and summer home and winter refuge for so many birds - the oystercatcher, dunlin, eider, sandpiper. You name it, it depends on the amazing coastlin, a coastline resplendent with grey seal, dolphins, porpoise, thresher and basking shark and even minke and killer whales to liven up the scene.

Kelp, dulse, lava and a host of less edible seaweeds make snorkelling a voyage of discovery. They provide homes for a cross section of marine life including the longest worm in the world, Lineus longissimus, that can believe it or not can top 30 metres in length.

Sand dunes link us to the game of golf that evolved along this coast and many of the best courses are Grade 1 Sites of Special Scientific Interest and nature reserves in their own right.

Birdies, eagles, skeins of geese, breachings, haul-outs, puffineries, gannetaries, ternaries, eyries, blackcock, ptarmigans, hares and ermine in winter white, rutting deer, popping capercaillie, roding woodcock, and even tree-climbing wood ants - all bring the tourist pounds, euros dollars and yen rolling in.

Throughout The Highlands and Islands, nature-based tourism is a number one earner and job creator. It is the outdoor green gym of which all bravehearts are made.