Well it was back to the Magic Isle last Saturday for another brilliant week.
Early start again at 4am.,arrived in Oban in just over 5 hours.
Straight out of the car and in search of Black Guillemot in the harbour here, a pair showed nicely from the car park.
After a very noisy ferry crossing due to it being full of kids we set off down to one or two of our usual haunts, first off to see if the White tails had nested in the same spot as the last few years. Which they had, a adult present at the nest….nice start!
Then whilst passing around Loch Beg i spotted a dog Otter sitting on a rock having a meal, pity he was a bit far away for photos.
And latter after dropping our gear off at the caravan we went off to Fidden, Jan had,nt got the words out of her mouth“you don,t expect to see hares on our first visit do you?” When one ran across the road in front of us!
We seen 4 all around the same area….best count we,ve had here!
Brilliant first few hours on the Isle. Also Whinchats,Stonechats and countless Wheatears and Common sands to name a few.
SUNDAY
Lovely first thing this morning, male Cuckoo heard and seen on the dog walk duty.
We went on a 6 mile round walk from the caravan just outside the village of Bunessan down to Uisken and around to Ardalanish bay, this bay is in our eyes the best we have seen on the isle, lovely sandy beach and best part of the time hardly anyone on it, we spent a good deal of time down here on this visit as it was safe to exercise the dog here…no cattle or sheep on here.
A long the road to here,- Stonechats,Whinchats, Ravens, Buzzards, Whitethroats,Willow warbs, 1 Gropper, Chaffs and Goldfinch, Rock doves,Hoodies,Lapwings med pips, skylarks, Cuckoos,Linnets to name a few.
Ardalanish bay- 5 Whimbrel, 6 Curlews, Oystercatchers 20+, Ringed plover 30+, Dunlin 15, 1 C. Sand, C.Terns and Artic terns along with Gannets and a few G.N.Divers, Common Auks, Shags and Cormorants off the shore,also a single Brent goose.
Ride to Kintra latter produced a male Merlin near here.
A long to Fidden and 6 Blackwit in the area, 5 Whimbrels over, 8 Golden plover and more Ravens.
And another couple of goodies from the caravan later- male Hen Harrier being mobbed from gulls at a distance and a Woodcock flew around at dusk.
MONDAY
Nice sunny day
Made our way up Loch Scridian viewing various points- C.terns,Shags,Kittiwakes and our first Red breasted Mergansers of this trip. The Great Northern divers were giving me the run around photo wise!
We had a quick look at a Adder site we know –none showing but seen and heard our first Garden Warbler, another first for our Mull list.
A high pitched call alerted me to Goldcrests further down the road near Pennyghael.
No luck with Otter at the head of Loch Beg but seen another Garden Warbler at Dererach, a long to the White tailed watch site and a bird on the nest feeding.
Headed towards Gribun and our first Golden eagles showed near Gribun 2 immature birds they soared and give us good views for a couple of minutes before heading off out of sight over the mountain.
2 Twites showed near the watch point for Eorsa on Loch na keal., and a Otter seen near here also before we headed for another White tailed nest site. Again a adult present near this nest also.
No luck this year seeing Goldies at a site we knew from last year.
Latter we headed for the camp site at the head of Loch na keal after about a hour a White tailed flew in from the north giving us nice views as it was mobbed by a Buzzard.
Another pair of Buzzards were spotted near their nest doing a food pass just outside of Bunessan, first time Jan has seen any BOP do this so it was a bit special to her.
Last visit of the day was back down to Ardalanish bay to give the dog some exercise, this produced our first Red throated divers 2 in s/p.
Not the best day for photo,s.