Late Wednesday evening, my car rolled up to a post box in Blairgowrie. I’d been given a specific set of instructions to find said post box.
But I wasn’t meeting up with some activist or politician for a shocking exposé.
I had decided to spend the summer solstice on a beaver tour beside Blairgowrie.
This meant showing up at 7pm with warm, dark clothing and a pair of binoculars. Although as you can see from the image above I forgot at least one out of three.
During the longest day of the year, I spent my night walking along the banks of the River Ericht, a Perthshire hot spot for beavers.
The beaver safari brings in tourists from all around the world to Blairgowrie, including a couple from Northampton who were there on their honeymoon.
Beaver tourism, who knew?
I set out with one question in mind – are beavers worth the hype?
First things first, did we spot any beavers on the Perthshire beaver tour?
Danièle Muir has been running the beaver tours from Blairgowrie for the last ten years.
She said they are very popular, and the groups she takes out always see at least two or three beavers.
Dawn and dusk, she says, are the best time to see them. I was happy that I got to miss out on the 3am wake-up call by opting for the late evening option.
It didn’t take me long to get there from our Dundee office, and it was a bright, clear night so the windy roads to Blairgowrie weren’t too hard to navigate either.
It was easy to follow her instructions of where to meet the rest of the tour, and drive a wee bit further to where we would head down to the river.
The walk down to the river involved wading through some pretty tall grass, which made me quite anxious about ticks. I don’t think this ‘path’ would be accessible for everyone, but the group (of varying ages) all managed it.
I must have been Danièle’s good luck charm, as we saw a total of six beavers during the tour – twice as many as they usually see.
The first one we spotted was Danièle’s favourite – the daddy beaver.
Beavers typically live to around eight years – that’s if they aren’t run over or shot first – but she thinks this guy may be as old as twelve.
Since Danièle has been giving the tours for a decade, she said coming across beavers she has seen year after year for so long is like “meeting up with old friends”.
Daddy beaver is recognisable thanks to fur that’s going white around his mouth. You can tell he is getting on a bit. But that didn’t stop him from being lively and entertaining.
It was the first time I’d seen a beaver in real life and I was surprised by just how adorable they are, even an OAP beaver like him.
I’ve heard beavers called “tubby spaniels”, “little bears” or even “oversized rats” – people either love or hate them. But this tour only consolidated my soft spot for the Marmite animals.
My favourite thing was how noisy those little guys get.
We first spotted him when he was snacking on his dinner at around 8pm. This was the most memorable – and adorable – part of the tour for me.
You could hear every munch, crunch and nibble of his little teeth as they gnawed on his dinner of sweet cicely.
Beavers are completely veggie and this is one of their favourite snacks – and I can see why, it tastes pretty good.
Yes, we tried some of it too, though we didn’t take it down to the river water to chow down in the shallows.
Foraging was part of the beaver tour too, and we all tried one of the sweet cicely seed pods, which smell and taste just like aniseed sweeties.
A family affair – beavers and their cute kits capered together
As the tour went on, more beavers emerged out of their burrows on the banks.
They have created a series of little paths (or slides) for them to access the water, and they all looked giddy with excitement as they wriggled their way down to meet each other.
Here’s daddy beaver and one of his kits hanging out by the river’s edge.
The pair look like they’re not speaking here.
But it wasn’t the daddy and his kit that were at odds that night.
Lots of the kits were “playing” with each other.
That’s what Danièle called it, at least, but it looked pretty aggressive to me. I suppose I can’t really talk, when I think about some of the brawls with me and my older sisters had growing up.
Aside from their fighting, the beavers looked extremely elegant when swimming in the water, gliding along effortlessly.
Did you know that beavers can hold their breath underwater for up to 15 minutes?
All in all, I really enjoyed the tour. It was great to get out and about in nature. The beavers didn’t seem bothered by us, so I didn’t feel as though we were intruding on their habitat.
I’d say you need to be patient to go on one of these tours, as you may not be so lucky as we were and see that many beavers in one go.
If you are in the mood for a calm, quiet evening enjoying your local wildlife, then this tour is for you.
In summation, beavers, noisy and cute as they are, are definitely worth the hype.
Perthshire beaver tour – pros and cons
Pros:
- Seeing many beavers interacting
- Insight from expert
- Great location
- Fun foraging element
Cons:
- Bit of a tricky walk down to the river
- Not for everyone if you’re not a beaver lover
The Perthshire beaver tour is £55pp or £165 for family bookings. It lasts for 2-2.5 hours and can be booked from April to mid-September.
