A Field Notebook: A day on Mull

My job takes me to some amazing places and offers me some fabulous experiences. This was my second visit to Mull this year and it's true that if it wasn't for work I probably would not have had opportunity to visit the island even once this year. However the fact that I am actually here working does mean that I can at times be frustratingly restricted in what I can do and where I can go. Imagine for a moment being on Mull and not being able to go to your favourite places and not being able to get to see all of that fabulous wildlife which you know is there and which you might not get another opportunity to see, but you just can't get to it because you're here to work. So close yet so far away. Still, there are opportunities if I can just accept the inevitable compromises.....

For example today I was talking to the site manager when a white-tailed eagle flew overhead, quite low down. It was a fine adult, one of the nicest I've ever seen and I got a good look at it through my binoculars but I didn't even have my camera with me at that point, so no photos. Still, perhaps I saw it all the better for not messing around with the camera. I have many fantastic images of birds in my mind from past experiences which don't require any photos, and this is just another. I don't need a photo of every great experience in order to prove that it was a great experience!

The scenery today was just stunning, after staying overnight in Tobermory I spent most of my day in the north part of the island, around Aros and the northern shores of Loch na Keal. The great thing about this time of year of course is that we have long periods of daylight which can be utilised long after work has finished.

Late afternoon found me at Loch na Keal. I found a parking spot for just one car about a quarter of a mile west from the well known white-tailed eagle viewing car park. I was on my own and no other cars could join me because there was no more room. Just enough for one car - mine. I wandered down to the side of the loch. The light was breathtaking with the deep green mountains behind contrasting superbly with the blue sky, the golden seaweed and the mirror like waters of the loch. Great to be alive at such a wonderful spot.

As I looked out a movement in the seaweed caught my eye, and sure enough it was an otter swimming. I watched it as it climbed out onto a rock and walked along for a bit before again going into the water and disappearing. It was still knocking about when I left an hour later.

Of course I was keeping my eyes to the skies throughout all of this because the eagles don't actually care where you are parked and sure enough an adult flew overhead and landed in the usual pine trees no doubt to the delight of the crowds in the next car park along.

The day didn't start off particularly sunny in fact in the mountains it was quite dull and drizzly. Around about this spot I came across a golden eagle my second of the day following a great view of one in Glen Aros earlier. A group of birders on a nature tour were looking for this bird because it's a nesting site. It always bugs me how evasive some tour leaders are when I ask them questions, almost to the point of being rude, like they're the only people who know anything about the wildlife on Mull and they won't tell me anything unless I pay them. I've got news for you folks, I know where most of the stuff is anyway and besides, even if I don't the thrill for me is finding my own stuff and not being shown it by people who probably know less than me about the wildlife on Mull. I moved down to the next parking spot preferring my own company and saw the bird, I don't know if the tour saw it, probably not they were looking in the wrong place and they left shortly after.

Reminds me of a tour I inadvertently got in with last year on the island of Tiritiri in New Zealand. I was touring New Zealand by myself and I'd decided to stay on Tiritiri mainly so that I could try for the nocturnal little kiwi at virtually its only accessible site, and there was a tour party there for exactly the same reason. The accommodation was a bunkhouse and we were all in close proximity and everything started off very friendly until we started discussing little kiwi. I knew exactly where to look for them and knew their call, and just made some casual remark about probably bumping into them later, but the group leader told me in no uncertain terms to keep well away from his group even though we'd inevitably be looking in roughly the same areas. So guess what? I went out alone and saw two little kiwi, he returned with his tour group having failed to see them. Yet he was the experienced tour guide, familiar with the calls and knowing exactly where to look. I nearly offered to take some of them out again for half the price they'd paid the guide and show them the birds but I thought that was pushing it!

Always a favourite of mine, bog asphodel. It's stunning when in full flower and not bad when it's going over and it acquires this orange colour. The moors on Mull are covered by it. In the brief snatches of sunlight here I also came across a northern emerald and several golden-ringed dragonflies.