Matt Wilson

My name is Matthew Wilson (Matt to most). I am a Scottish West Coaster born and bred and for the last 24 years I have been privileged to live and work on land and sea on and around the peninsula of Morvern in North Argyll.

This sparsely populated, wild, and often windy chunk of land is bound by water. Loch Sunart to the north and West, The Sound of Mull to the south, Loch Linnhe to the east and the rivers of Carnoch and Tarbert completing the circle in spectacular Glen Tarbert.

The constant maritime feel runs from the barren ptarmigan tops to the temperate rainforests of ancient Atlantic oak woods fringing the sea lochs and islands.

This diverse range of habitats brings an equally diverse but often specialised variety of wildlife. The remoteness and wildlife were the reasons I settled here to earn a living. Nowadays my way of life is mostly spent studying sea and golden eagles, otters and pine martens.

My relentless childhood passion for wildlife has never left me. Every day there is an excitement of what I am going to encounter. Often it surprises me when the naturally progressed skills of my youth come into play. There lies the lesson of encouraging our children in such ways! My parents always did so for me. Children may drift away from it for a while but often they come back round again. My up bringing was amongst fisherman, countrymen and old-style naturalists who had a holistic understanding of the natural world and creatures they came across. I would like to think that this grounding has given me my balanced view to our wildlife and environment.

Some of you may have come across me over the years in Simon King's Carna The Otter and Rannoch The Red Deer, Highland Diary, Spring Watch and Autumn Watch, Ian McCarthy’s film on Golden Eagles, Eagle Odyssey the RSPB film on Sea eagles, Fledgling Expectations ( A New Zealand film on  New Zealand Falcons ) various wildlife tours or just bumped into me around the coast or coming off the hill.

Spring 2011 brings the start of an exciting new innovative wildlife based venture for me. It has been many years in developing at true west coast wildlife pace. It is centred around developing people’s awareness of the needs of our wildlife through experiencing intimate personal insights into the lives of individual eagles, otters, pine martens and many other species that live here. The ethos is responsible, low-key wildlife tourism at its best. A website telling you more will be up and running early next year.

Without saying too much at the moment, you can track the progress of my project through Wildlife Whisperer. You can share in my experiences with live-camera links and video clips. Enjoy the fun side of wildlife on the wild West Coast, follow the training of Seorsa my young sea eagle, laugh at the antics of Spike the heron who has adopted me (as long as I feed him!) during this harsh winter snap and more of the wild creatures that share my life here.