Bird Watching in Mull – Pete @ Brenda Wilson

We decide our journey to Oban would include an overnight stop in Carlisle giving us plenty of time to have a relaxed journey before catching the ferry to Craignure on Saturday June 8th at 3.15pm. We stayed overnight at a very comfortable Travel Inn a mile from Carlisle city centre.
Arriving in Oban about midday gave us a couple of hours to look around before boarding the ferry.
From Craignure we headed towards Tobermory turning off at Salen about 2 miles from Gruline and our very comfortable log cabin at “ Torlochan”, which is a working farm.

On our first trip out we headed south a few miles before stopping to chat, by a river, with another “birder” who happened to be Alan Spellman.
Alan is the bird recorder for Mull and he runs the web site …Mullbirds.com.
Apparently Alan retired to Mull from Yorkshire about 10years ago.
The next couple of “birders “we spoke to ……and met regularly …was a young couple from Derby. The waiter at the Salen Hotel was from Derby ….and the assistant manageress was from Sheffield!!…. Small world!!

During our many journeys round the island we constantly saw Pied Wagtails. Common Sandpiper and Hooded Crow. Buzzards were sat around poles and fences but quickly left when the cameras came out! But they didn’t all get away!!
Cuckoos were constantly calling, and we had good sightings of them.

Our first sighting of the White tailed Eagle was something we will always remember. It was being mobbed by two Buzzards, which looked really small at the side of the Eagle.

Our visit to the breeding site of the White Tailed Eagle at Aros took us 5 miles up a woodland track . The nest is only visible by camera from in the hide, where the two chicks could be viewed. One adult Eagle visited the nest as we observed and sat high up in the top of an adjacent tree. Just across the loch an Osprey sat sunning!!

Iona was next on our list looking for that elusive Corncrake. We could hear one calling from just beyond the old monastery at the other side of a very pretty organic garden….but it wouldn’t show! We decide to walk along the track away from the ruins and met up with a couple more birders who remarked they had heard Corncrake. As we spoke a Corncrake flew up from 5 yards away and quickly dived back in to the grass. We actually was that close…….excellent sighting!!!!

The Treshnish Isles was the next trip. Some advice if you go…..sit inside the boat!!…those who chose to sit outside were soaked with the spray. Calling at Staffa for an hour we observed Great Skua… Black Guillemot and lots of Wheatear.
We landed on the Isle of Lunga …….and saw Puffins very close….bringing food in to the nests…some being chased by Artic Skua. At the far end of the island is a huge rock covered with breeding Guillemot…..Razorbill and Fulmars. This trip is not suitable for people who are not able walkers. On our journey back to Gruline…..we got sight of a Golden Eagle…..very close to where we was staying!

One of our favourite places was Grasspoint…where we got Woodcock……Hen Harrier…Sea Eagle…and an albino Willow Warbler!!!!!
Although we searched the lochs extensively…we didn’t find the Otters and Divers.
Never mind………we can always go back next year!!!!!
We observed 80 species of birds and 4 types of Orchids