Our Guides
Speyside Wildlife's small team really is the secret of our success. Enthusiasm, expertise and a sense of fun - they’ve got it! We know, and you tell us over and over again, that Speyside Wildlife's guides and behind the scenes logistics just can't be beaten.
Roy Atkins
We’ve known Roy for over 25 years. He’s a great all-round naturalist
and years’ of experience in the world of teaching have made him
a great people person. Our guests travel with him again and again
to far-flung places such as Costa Rica, Tanzania, the Pantanal and
British Columbia. His sense of fun and knowledge of birds, plants
and animals make him a very popular leader.
Simon Eaves
Simon is one of Speyside’s keenest birdwatchers. He knows as
much as anyone about the wildlife of the Scottish Highlands and has
a real interest in scarce birds, mammals and identification challenges
- with him as your guide you’ll learn a huge amount about Speyside.
That doesn’t stop him taking guests further afield for us however,
to places such as Tarifa/Doñana and the Isles of Scilly.
Craig Round
Craig loves Speyside and the Scottish Islands and has led tours in
Scotland for 25 years, taking our guests regularly to Mull, Shetland,
Fair Isle and the Outer Hebrides. He has a great combination of field
naturalist skills, outgoing personality and incredibly sharp eyes; along
with an astonishing knowledge of birds, mammals and insects.
Darren Rees
Darren is a great birder and quite simply fun to be with. He has led
countless groups for us in Arizona, Texas, California, South Africa and
Namibia. This year he will be taking guests to Colorado, Finland and
Norway, Namibia and Spitsbergen. He is also a talented artist: ‘Bird
Impressions’ is his acclaimed collection of bird paintings and his latest
book ‘Ice Bound’ follows his exploits in Antarctica’.
Julian Sykes
A native Yorkshireman, Julian now divides his time between there
and Spain, so is the perfect guide to take you on our Andujar,
Extremadura and Pyrenees holidays. Not that this stops him from
leading tours to British Columbia, NE India and Wrangel Island. He
has a lifelong interest in wildlife and his friendly outgoing nature makes
him a very popular guide and ideal member of the team.
Sally Nowell
Sally has travelled extensively to pursue her interest in wildlife
watching, particularly birds, and has been based in Speyside for the
last 23 years, so has an excellent knowledge of Highland wildlife. Sally
is a keen walker and loves to try and get off the beaten track to
discover the hidden corners of the Highlands. She co-leads a number
of our Scottish holidays.
David Hull
David has a background in education and his roles as a wildlife guide
and conservationist benefit from his enthusiasm for teaching and
lifelong learning. He enjoys sharing his knowledge of Scottish plants,
birds, mammals and butterflies during our Day Guides and he also
guides our Evening Mammal Watching and Badger Photography
experiences.
Harris Brooker
Harris is a well-rounded naturalist with a wide interest in nature and a
particular passion for wildlife, botany and astronomy. He is our Evening
Mammal Hide guide, based near Aviemore and you will also find him
supporting our Wildlife Identification Courses and Guided Day Out.
Ailie Brown
Ailie studied Zoology at Aberdeen University before interning at
Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve as a Grazing warden. Ailie
has a great interest in bird watching and identifying wildflowers and
butterflies too! Ailie leads on the administration of our Guided Days
Out as well as guiding our local guests in the Cairngorms during their
days out.
Jonathan Willet
Jonathan has been working as a wildlife guide for 25 years and
has always worked up in the Highlands and Islands. He loves the
opportunity to share the majesty of the wonderful wildlife we have
with our guests and of course the stories that go along with! He is
an all-round naturalist but specialises in dragonflies and can usually fit
them into a conversation somewhere.
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Our Behind the Scenes Team
Speyside Wildlife's small team really is the secret of our success. Enthusiasm, expertise and a sense of fun - they’ve got it! We know, and you tell us over and over again, that Speyside Wildlife's guides and behind the scenes logistics just can't be beaten.
Sally Dowden
Sally owns Speyside Wildlife and is still very much hands on in the
organisation. Responsible for the smooth running and complex logistics
of the business, she recently instigated a wildlife identification course,
designed to fill the lack of ‘on the ground’ identification skills in the
Cairngorms, which is run by two of our wildlife tour guides.
Lisa Gunn
LLisa has been with us for nearly 20 years and is responsible for all the
accounting and systems management. Along with the daily accounting
processes, company pensions, wages, budgets, contribution schedules
and VAT, she organises the logistics of both our wildlife watching hides,
all of which help to keep her busier than ever!
Susanne McCafferty
Susanne has been with us for over seventeen years. Born and bred
in Speyside, she deals with all aspects of a selection of our Scottish
and UK holidays to ensure your holiday runs as smoothly as possible.
Destinations include Orkney, the Outer Hebrides, the Isles of Scilly,
Northumberland and Mull.
Tania Pedersen
Tania deals with all aspects of administration to ensure you have
all the information you need for your holiday. She also organises
all our overseas trips, dealing with the complex logistics of the
long-haul destinations, while still finding time to manage the European
destinations.
Emma Paterson
Emma leads on our marketing and deals with our design work, website and organises our guides to deliver presentations to bird clubs, various exhibitions at birding fairs, plus our own events up and down the country. Her background in hospitality and marketing, means she is best placed to ensure we get to see as many of you as possible around the UK and also to handle our tailormade itineraries.