Isle of Mull days 9 and 10

Well getting near to the last post (another three days) of images from the Isle of Mull before moving onto the Outer Hebrides. A varied selection today, a cancelled boat trip for puffins mean't we did the White Tailed Sea Eagles again so more shots of them! A varied selection today hope you enjoy them.

One of the local Highland Cattle

Old Bridge near Loch Scridain

White Tailed Sea Eagle (you can just see the fish in the left of the image)

White Tailed Sea Eagle

Seal sunbathing

Stonechat

Whinchat

Moon Jellyfish

Grey Heron fishing, Loch na Keal

Hooded Crow

Isle of Mull day's 7 + 8

Things slowed up a little over these two days, however still managed to get an obliging Great Northern Diver in summer plumage with some nice light too, which shows the plumage up nicely. My first pictures of the Corncrake, harsh contrasty light on these though, (get some nicer one's later). And also caught the Mergansers again ,a record shot of the male Hen Harrier and an early morning Swallow.

Early morning Swallow

Corncrake, Iona

Corncrake, "calling"

Merganser

Great Northern Diver, and a rare rain shower!

Great Northern Diver

Hen Harrier (wish it had come closer!)

Great Northern Diver, summer plumage showing well in the afternoon sunlight

Isle of Mull days 5 and 6

Well I have now joined Macus Conway and his ebirder workshop for 5 days, nice to have someone else to drive and more eyes to do the wildlife spotting. More Sea Eagle action and early morning 5am rises are the norm now. Early mornings I find are normally more productive than the rest of the day. Onto the next image selection.

5:30am for the Mountain Hare

White Tailed Sea Eagle

Guillemot

Mountain Hare

Razorbill

White Tailed Sea Eagle 

Black Guillemot with Starfish

Buzzard posed nicely whilst we were looking for  Owls!

Isle of Mull Days 3 and 4

Hooded Crow Isle of mull

Well finding my feet now so it is time to start working a bit harder to get some images. There is definitely a reduction in the numbers of birds/wildlife or I am not looking hard enough, lol.  Still more variety in this post and even a couple of distant Otter sightings at Loch na Keal and Loch Scridain. However these would prove to be elusive to me throughout this trip! Video is a bit shakey ,lol

Great Northern Diver

Merganser

Eider

Otter enjoying lunch

Hooded Crow

Great Northern Diver

Isle of Mull days 1 and 2

Well on the 16th of May I drove up to Oban and from there I got on the ferry for the 45 minutes crossing to Craignure,  The Isle of Mull.  A quiet crossing with no signs of any sea-life close enough to photograph. Mull beckons soon enough once you pass the Lismore Lighthouse.  On arrival in Mull a quick departure from the ferry at Craignure and drive to just passed Salen to Crannich Farm, superb campsite in a stunning setting. Days 1 and 2 were all about settling in and re-familiarizing myself with roads and directions. However there was time for a Sea Eagle boat trip on the afternoon of the 2nd day and a good forecast. (in fact to good the light was really intense!) The images are not in sequence, google just seems to be placing them all over the place so apologies for that!

Short Eared Owl, surprisingly my only one on a post in 12 days on Mull 

Early evening light, out looking for Short Eared Owls, Loch an Eilean and Loch Airde  Glais with Loch Sguabain out of picture!

View of Lock na Keal prior to the Sea Eagle Boat trip

Juvenile White Tailed Sea Eagle makes an apperance over the Sea Eagle Boat trip

White Tailed Sea Eagle

Lismore Lighthouse on the way to Craignure

A wrong turn took me into Loch Ghurrabain in Aros Park on the way to Tobermory, still great spot for some lunch and a brew

Isle of Mull and Outer Hebrides

Well I am finally back from my tour of Scotland, I will be doing the same again next year!  Covered some 3,392 miles and I am now back in sunny Helston. I will be posting a selection of images commencing tomorrow hopefully, so you will have to keep an eye on the blog for updates, but it is going to take a couple of weeks to cover it all.  I will also try to catch up on the blogs I  follow, could take a while. Anyhow great time away and good to be back!

White Tailed Sea Eagle about to strike