Cairngorms national park is home to golden eagles and rare wildcats. Photograph: Mark Tran

My travelling companion and expert twitcher, David Newlands, has remarkably good eyes. At the end of a two-hour drive through the undulating hills of the Glenlivet Estate in the Cairngorms national park he pulled up sharply in his Land Rover.

In glorious sunshine and under a cloudless blue sky, we walked to the side of the road and peered through our binoculars at the hillside opposite. It was a pretty scene with bright yellow bursts of gorse bushes. But we were after more than just views of lovely landscape.

Almost invisible to the untrained eye were two white spots; the rumps of a pair of roe deer foraging in the grass. While my travelling companion and I had been savouring the view of gentle green hills, piles of stones - the remnants of cottages abandoned long ago - and fluffy sheep, Mr Newlands was looking for wildlife.

"The eye can be trained," Mr Newlands said. "It doesn't take that long to train people to see. I didn't see much wildlife when I first came here until I realised that when I went out, the wildlife was watching me and it was a case of training myself to spot them."

Mr Newlands used to work for a fruit co-operative in Kent but five years ago decided to swap his desk-bound existence for the great outdoors. Two years ago, he started Genlivet Wildlife, offering Land Rover tours and guided walks around the 58,000-acre Glenlivet estate, a medium-sized piece of land for this part of the Scottish Highlands.

There are 20 to 24 species of birds and mammals here, including the golden eagle and most rare of all, the wildcat, which is twice the size of a domestic cat.

During our brief tour, we saw a pied wagtail, a black and white bird, apparently a favourite of comedian-turned birdwatcher Bill Oddie, lapwings with their elegant black crest and iridescent green feathers as well as a curlew with its incredibly long pointy beak, very good for probing for worms.

Mr Newlands was particularly pleased that we managed to spot a mountain hare, Britain's fastest mammal, capable of bounding along at a cracking 40 miles per hour. When this particular creature gambolled off at what seemed a pretty brisk pace, our guide said: "He's not even trying."

Mr Newlands surprised us when he told us that his eyes were going.

"But it's OK, it's my close vision. I can still see things at a distance," he assured us. Which is just as well when you're bouncing along off-road tracks looking for wildlife.

For my next report, I'll be following the malt whisky trail.

· The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival runs until Monday May 6. Almost 50 world-famous distilleries are located on Speyside and you can visit and tour most during the festival. Other events include tasting sessions, food fairs, walks and tours, ceilidhs.