With winter's first snow comes a dramatic change in the landscape. The mountains are cloaked in the purest white and life takes on a certain crispness.

Winter wildlife watching offers possibly the most spectacular moments with wild creatures. Days are shorter and the secret is to get up that bit earlier. Beautiful white sand beaches still look as they do in summer but now they are scattered with wading birds on passage or wintering here. The sea is just as blue and it’s great to be in some remote place and catch sight of a school of bottlenose dolphins all to yourself. Forests are often backed by snow capped peaks and if you are lucky enough to get a fall of snow you might pick up the track of a pine marten or a wildcat.

The air is very clear and winter sun can be very pleasant indeed. This means that whilst it’s very cold on the top of our highest mountains, it can be surprisingly warm down below and in the sunshine. Days are quieter and less windy and you can pick up the noisy calls of the bright red parrot-like crossbill as they alight on pine trees often in large groups. The huge capercaillie is a noisy bird and their strange grunting noise can be heard from a great distance, particularly as there are no leaves on the trees to absorb the sound. Black grouse and red grouse are also easier to hear and see than in summer.

Our seas are kept fairly mild because of the effects of the Gulf Stream and this is a cue for Atlantic seals to produce their appealing white and fluffy seal pups. Otters also have their young in the autumn and early winter. There can be no more enchanting sight in nature than seeing mum out with her cubs who are small balls of brown fur floating with their heads down on the surface as they watch their mother diving to get their food.

Winter also brings literally thousands of geese to the Isle of Islay and other Hebridean Islands. Barnacle, greenland white fronted and other species arrive with a cacophony of noise from their summer breeding grounds in the far north, as do millions of wading birds. Our lochs are probably busier now than at any other time of year and you will see divers, grebes and sea ducks in their winter plumage. Freshwater lochs have whooper swans, and arctic ducks also enjoy our mild winter climate.

It’s impossible to overstate the spectacular beauty of a winter wildlife watching holiday here. Winter is full of wildlife surprises – this is the time to see species that you would not expect to see at any other time, such as gyrfalcon and rough legged buzzards. Roads are quiet and wildlife is undisturbed and bolder. Days can often be spent sunning yourself in a forest glade, whilst waiting for that elusive pine marten to appear!