July Blog

It was such a shame to leave last month’s blog on sad news about the death of The Great Tit’s chicks but this blog is more of a exciting one which I can’t wait to tell you, until now.

I recently visited The Isle of Mull which was mainly to see The Puffins but we will get to that a little bit later on. I had a amazing week there, on arrival at the house I spotted a Song Thrush singing on top of the house, it continued to sing most mornings and evenings and one night I stepped outside the house to film it. At the start of the week had a walk out at Calgary Bay after watching some Hooded Crows at the picnic bench having lunch, decided to go for a walk. There were three birds singing at first I thought they were Stonechats because the call was very familiar but it wasn’t until I got home I realised it wasn’t a Stonechat but a Wheatear.

The following day had a day trip to The Isle Of Iona. On the way spotted three Buzzards flying but I could only manage to get a photo of one.

Isle of Iona is a beautiful place I would recommend you visit if you plan on holidaying in Mull. After visiting the castle there was a strange looking bird perched on the wall it looked very much like a chicken but there were no chickens around, before I could raise my Binoculars to see what it was it jumped into the next field which had overgrown grass. There was only one thing for it, it had to be a Corncrake because Iona is the best place to see them so that really made my day. The next day was the highlight of the week it was the trip to Staffa & Lunga to see The Puffins. Arriving at Staffa first we saw Bottle nosed Dolphins, they swam very close to us on the boat so managed to get good photos. After a hour and a bit on Staffa we went back on the boat and headed towards Lunga as that is the place to go to see The Puffins and boy what a experience that was to have Puffins at close range it was a experience I will never forget.

You could get carried away taking endless photos of Puffins, some people just stayed with the Puffins but thought I’d see more of the place and yes there were Puffins but there was also Razorbills, Fulmers, Gilliemots & Shags. We decided to find a place to have lunch we got to a nearby cliff and could hear Seabird calls, as I got closer I couldn’t believe my eyes, thousands and thousands of Gilliemots with a few Razorbills & Puffins as well it was a amazing sight.

It was unfortunately time to say goodbye to the Puffins and Seabirds and head back to the boat, on the way back to Tobermory we had one special treat and that was seeing a Sea Eagle on a nest.

The week was nearly over but on the second last day was driving around Mull and spotted a few folk with Binoculars and cameras there was obviously something they were looking for they said it was a Otter so I stayed in the car scanning through my Binoculars and bingo there it was fishing away and eating on a fish. It stayed for maybe five to ten minutes before disappearing. I had a amazing week on Mull and could happily say I saw all The Big Five people come to Mull hoping to see 1) The Buzzard 2) The Corncrake 3) The Golden Eagle (yes I saw it too on my trip) 4) The Puffin 5) The Otter.