The Grant Arms Hotel
and BWWC
Programme of Events for
March to April 2021
Juvenile White-tailed Eagle / Carol Holmes
Slavonian Grebe / Roy Peacock Waxwing / Richard Stacy
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
Monday 1st to Monday 8th March
We start our opening week with a returning guest speaker NIGEL REDMAN. Nigel has been an active birder since the mid-1960s. He is a publisher of bird books by profession and was the head of natural history for Bloomsbury Publishing in the UK. He has also worked as a bird tour leader visiting some 90 countries on all 7 continents in over more than 140 bird tours. and has been a member of the editorial board of British Birds since 1998.
Tuesday 2nd Nigel’s first talk is called In Archer’s Footsteps:
Birding in the Republic of Somaliland this talk will examine the
ornithological history of Somaliland and explore its varied habitats, revealing birds and places that very few westerners have ever seen.
Thursday 4th is Nigel’s second talk called Birding on the Roof of
Africa: The Endemic Birds of Ethiopia and will illustrate the full
range of habitats, birds and mammals to be found in this unique region, focusing on the endemics and taking us on a guided tour of the best birding sites on the Ethiopian plateau, in the surrounding bushland and around the lakes of the Great Rift Valley.
As well the two talks, Nigel will help lead walks and trips during this week alongside the BWWC Team of local expert wildlife experts, who will all be champing at the bit to show our guests what you have all been missing.
Loch Garten / Sue Williams
Little Brown Bustard, Somaliland / Nigel Redman
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
Saturday 6th to Monday 15th March
For our second week we welcome back ecologist, ornithologist, writer, and the wildlife reporter for the BBC programme The One Show MIKE DILGER. Mike will be here to do some guiding on walks and trips alongside our local wildlife experts. These walks and trips will be free to all guests, but you will require your own transport and there may be limits on numbers for each trip due to any ongoing Covid and parking restrictions.
Monday 8th Mike will give his first talk on My Wild Covid Year
showing us some of the wildlife he encountered on his doorstep during lockdown.
Thursday 11th Mike’s second talk is No Feathers Required!…
which will be an appreciation of Scotland’s less celebrated wildlife.
Sunday 14th to Sunday 21st March
This is the week for our annual and extremely popular RAPTOR THEMED WEEK and are delighted to welcome a new guest speaker and guide for this week, LIZZIE BRUCE, who is currently the
RSPB’s NW Norfolk Reserves warden covering Titchwell Marsh and Snettisham reserves. She is also on the committee of Spurn Bird Observatory and a director of British Birds magazine. TV wildlife presenter MIKE DILGER will still be here with us as well. We will be running daily walks and trips with Lizzie, Mike and the BWWC local wildlife experts which will be free to all guests, but you will require your own transport and there may be limits on numbers for each trip due to any ongoing Covid and parking restrictions.
Watching Eagles at Findhorn Valley
Mike Dilger
White-tailed Eagle with Mountain Hare / Ian Mears
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
Monday 15th Lizzie will give her first talk, Marsh Harriers and Me, hear what it takes to become a reserve warden and some of the wildlife spectacles that she has experienced along the way.
Thursday 18th Lizzie will give her second talk Birding North West
Norfolk: The Lockdown Edition, the lockdown resulted in many
places being closed so Lizzie took the opportunity to discover more of what was on her doorstep.
Saturday 20th to Sunday 28th March
For this last week Welsh naturalist, broadcaster, public speaker and writer IOLO WILLIAMS will be back with us this week to do some guiding on walks and trips alongside our local wildlife experts. These walks and trips will be free to all guests, but you will require your own transport and there may be limits on numbers for each trip due to any ongoing Covid and parking restrictions.
Monday 22nd, Iolo will give a talk Welsh Wildlife 2 in which he will tell us about a new batch of welsh wildlife, their status in Wales and beyond, from the Welsh clearwing moth to fin whales and from beaver to midwife toads.
Thursday 25th we are delighted that everyone’s favourite wildlife
artist CHRIS ROSE will come and give us a talk about Uganda—
The Pearl of Africa as he revisits the land of his birth and discovers
the wildlife treasures it holds.
Dolphins / Graham Newton
Lapwing, Insh Marshes / Peter Moore
Iolo Williams
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
Monday 29th March to Thursday 1st April
Our BRITISH WILDLIFE BOOK FESTIVAL which was postponed from April 2020 will run this week. We are delighted that natural historian, author, broadcaster and wildlife TV producer STEPHEN
MOSS will return to host the event. He will also give a talk on his
latest book The Swallow: A Biography. We are also delighted that IOLO WILLIAMS will stay on for the festival and talk about his new book Wild Places UK. Other authors signed up include
MARK CARWARDINE zoologist, broadcaster and author of
Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. MARY COLWELL
(naturalist, BBC producer and author of Beak, Tooth and Claw:
Why Predators are Needed for a Healthy British Countryside.
DR ERICA MCALISTER (head of dipthera at the Natural History
Museum, unexpected star turn at the 2019 Festival with her new book The Inside Out of Flies. Adele Brand (ecologist and author of
The Hidden World of the Fox. As well as talks by these and other
wonderful authors about their books in the afternoons and evenings, we will also be running walks and trips in the mornings with our local wildlife experts and some of our Authors. This is a fun week where you can mix with the authors and hear their stories and see some of our wonderful spring wildlife at the same time.
Friday 2nd to Tuesday 6th April
As our British Wildlife Book Festival finishes and we head into April we will run an EASTER EXTRAVAGANZA with daily walks
Old Spey Bridge
Stephen Moss
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
and trips by our local expert wildlife experts taking you to some of our favourite local woods and beauty spots and some of our best wildlife sites, including Anagach Woods and the River Spey, the Moray Coast and Strathdearn, looking for early spring arrivals and our resident wildlife getting ready for their new breeding season. All the walks and trips will be free to all guests and you will require your own transport to get to the locations. There may be restrictions on numbers due to any ongoing Covid or parking restrictions.
Monday 5th to Sunday 11th April
This week we welcome back ecologist, ornithologist, writer, and the wildlife reporter for the BBC programme The One Show MIKE DILGER for more guiding and talks. Mike will again be guiding walks and trips alongside our local wildlife experts looking for many of our spring specialities. These walks and trips will be free to all guests, but you will require your own transport and there may be limits on numbers for each trip due to any ongoing Covid and parking restrictions.
Monday 5th Mike will give a talk asking the question So You Want
to be a Wildlife Presenter? where he will talk about the hard work,
attributes and resilience needed to make a living from this uniquely bizarre profession.
Thursday 8th Mike’s second talk is My Diseases and Other
Animals where he takes you on a whistle-stop tour around the
world in fifty minutes recounting his travels over three continents while working as a research biologist in the world’s tropical forests.
Strathdearn / John Poyner
Mountain Hare / Nigel Sprowell
Crested Tit, Anagach Woods / Terence Jamieson
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
Sunday 11to to Sunday 18th April
This is the week for our popular annual SPRING/GROUSE THEMED WEEK and are delighted to welcome another new speaker and guide to help us, DAN ROUSE. Dan is a presenter, author, wildlife conservationist and an ornithologist working with the rarest wildfowl in the world. During this week she will be helping our local wildlife experts lead daily walks and trips to see some of our Spring specialities.
Monday 12th Dan will give her first talk Life of a Bird
Conservationist where takes us on a journey through her life as a
bird conservator, filled full of tales from the field.
Thursday 15th Dan’s second talk is called How to Attract Birds to
Your Garden from her book of the same name where she will help
us unravel the complicated world of feeders, feed, nest boxes, baths and so much more.
Sunday 18th to Saturday 24th April
As Dan leaves and our Spring Week ends, we welcome back British wildlife TV presenter, naturalist, conservationist, author, and television Producer NIGEL MARVEN. During this week, Nigel will be guiding walks and trips alongside our local wildlife experts. As with our previous guided weeks, these walks and trips will be free to all guests, but you will require your own transport and there may still
Black Grouse / Peter Welch
Dan Rouse
Nigel Marven
THE GRANT ARMS HOTEL AND BWWC
Programme of Events for March to April 2021
be limits on numbers for each trip due to any ongoing Covid and parking restrictions.
Monday 19th Nigel will talk about his latest TV programme Wild
Guatemala, introducing us to Morelet’s crocodiles and Maya ruins,
hummingbirds and horned guans, pink headed warblers and beaded lizards.
Joining us for the last few days of Nigel’s week from Wednesday
21st to Sunday 25th is another new guest speaker/guide, freelance
ornithologist, and tour leader for Naturetrek, TOM CADWALLENDER.
Thursday 22nd Tom will give a talk (Title yet to be confirmed).
Chanonry Point / Gilian Lloyd Red-throated Diver / Nigel Sprowell
Pink-footed Geese / Nigel Sprowell
Red Deer / Nigel Sprowell