Having kept a journal documenting all my wildlife encounters with my country’s less commonly seen fauna for over three years now, I thought it was about time I condensed my notes into some sort of order to give you an idea of what you could expect to see when out and about in the Scottish countryside. It’s not of course, at all scientific and is predominantly from sightings in the Scottish Borders region, where I live, and the West coast of Scotland. But hopefully it will give you a useful overview of what our current wildlife is like and should reflect general population numbers in this part of the world. The percentage against each entry below represents the overall proportion of separate sightings for that animal from the total number of wildlife sightings recorded. Having crunched the numbers, there are a few surprises in the top 20…….

Roe Deer: 10.1%. Buzzard: 9.7%. Badger: 9.6% Fox: 6.7%. Bat: 5.1%. Kestrel: 3.9%. Heron: 3.9%. House Martin: 3.0%. Grey Squirrel: 2.8%. Brown Hare: 2.8%. Great Spotted Woodpecker: 2.8%. Tawny Owl: 2.7%. Common Shrew: 2.2%. Swallow: 2.0%. Sparrowhawk: 1.7%. Goldfinch: 1.7%. Siskin: 1.7%. Otter: 1.5%. Wren: 1.5%. Field Mouse: 1.3%.

Notable creatures spotted that just missed out on making it onto the list include, Weasel, Field Vole, Red Squirrel, Muntjac Deer, Nuthatch, Wood Mouse, Hedgehog, Barn Owl, White-Tailed Eagle, White-Throated Dipper and Greenfinch.

A cheeky visitor on our doorstep a couple of years ago. The culling of non-native, virus-carrying Grey Squirrels across Scotland has led to a resurgence of native Red Squirrel numbers in some regions, including my local area in the Scottish Borders.