Thursday 16 April 2009

Flowers

Another superb day yesterday with the sun cracking the tiles. We had a great start with some visible migration of 80 Brent Geese heading North, Gannets and Razorbill in the Sound of Iona, and a singing Chiffchaff in Fionnphort. Chiffchaff is a rare sight on the Ross of Mull so a real bonus bird that one!
The next stop we had produced a nice surprise too - 3 Golden Eagle and 2 WT Eagle all flying around together! A great sighting for us but not so good for the farmer whose lambs were in the field below.
I'd decided, a couple of days ago, to get some photographs of the flowers that are now appearing so here are the shots...
Primrose

Lesser Celandine


Dog Violet


Butterwort

Wood Anemone

It was worth the wait to get the light for those photographs but we managed to get another Golden Eagle and a male Hen Harrier while I was busy!

We had a fairly impressive list for the day already and the Otters were the only thing we hadn't seen. A supposedly quick stop at the shop turned into a long stop when I picked up this Ring-billed Gull. As you can see it was a battle with the light to get a decent photo but this shot shows the bird quite well. Possibly a first for Mull as, I think, the last record got thrown out.


We finished the day in style when I spotted a furry bundle on the seaweed covered rock. It was a fair distance away so we moved to a closer position but we couldn't see anything until a head popped up as if to say 'Are you looking for me?' - stunner! We bided our time and eventually it appeared in the water just below us closely followed by a cub! We sat quietly watching, no one else around, the Curlews, Redshank and Oystercatchers calling all around made for a magical experience. We crept away a good while later to leave them in peace.

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