A wonderful day on Mull today, mainly spent walking along the south bank of Loch na Keal, from the campsite at the head of the loch to Ulva ferry. It was a dull, cold and at times drizzley kind of day, but lots of wildlife to take my mind off the weather. As soon as we arrived we spotted an otter and watched it at close range for about 20 minutes, at times as close as 10m away.
There were quite a few ducks scattered across the water, red-breasted mergansers, goosander and about 80 teal, and there were about 50 greylags on the nearby fields. About 11 great northern divers fished the loch and dotted in amongst them were nine Slavonian grebes.
Suddenly the greylags went up and I turned and saw two white-tailed eagles flying towards me and quite low down. They seemed quite inquisitive because when they reached me they circled over head a couple of times before heading off towards the hills to the north, finally disappearing over the ridge. I kept my eyes open in that direction hoping that they would return and though they didn't I was rewarded with a golden eagle.
Meanwhile as I continued my journey I managed to find at least another two otters. Not a bad way to spend a Novembers day!
Great northern diver.
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