Yes I love watching the wildlife when walking.
On a munro hike in Glenshee in Feb we saw so many mountain hares and ptarmigan. I've seen herds of red deer of 100+ grazing on hillsides, and got quite close to some whilst walking at dusk alongside Loch Muick, near Ballater. They had come down from the hills. We always hear the red deer rut in autumn where we live, I can stand in the back garden and hear them roaring away.
It's a privilage to be able to get so up-close with such amazing wildlife that we have in Britain.
I saw my first osprey recently. I was looking over one of the local reservoirs at what I thought was a buzzard. Then I saw the white underside and realised it was an osprey, hunting. Someone we met on a walk there last year had seen one feeding nearby. There's only 148 breeding pairs in the UK, most are in Scotland.
I wanted to watch it for longer, but Corbie, my labrador, started whinging, so we continued into the area where he can go off-lead. I let him off and sat watching it for a bit longer. I wanted to stay and see if it would dive and I wish I had had my binoculars with me.
I know where all my local buzzards live, and often see them sat on fence posts or soaring above the house. They are lovely, I've been lucky to see so many so close up. A couple of times they've flown over my car when I've been driving and one actually clipped his talons on my roof
It was ok, thankfully.
I've had a couple of golden eagle close-encounters - one in Glen Feshie, near Aviemore. It was hovering low down above us, and I had my bins then
The other was up a mountain called Ben Ledi near Callendar, two flew right in front of me and OH as we were walking up!
There are white-tailed sea eagles (UK's largest bird of prey) around here too, several were released in Fife last year, but still waiting to see one of those.
Here's a few pics:
Ptarmigan, managed to get quite close to this
A male and female
Mountain hare
I would love to spend all day wildlife watching. Even just a local walk can throw up surprises.
Springwatch starts tonight on BBC2 and Simon King is in Strathspey, so that will be good to see as it's one of my favourite places and should see some great wildlife.