Friday was a real dreich day but I wasn't out on tour as I was preparing to leave Mull to head down to Newcastle to pick the family up. I was busy repairing one of the tripods outside when the sun burst through the clouds and created a rainbow over the always photogenic boat. An opportunity not to be missed - beautiful.
The ferry trip provided a couple of sightings too with a few Manx Shearwater flying around and also two Porpoise. The best was yet to come though as I crawled out of Oban. Just after clearing most of the slower traffic I was at Loch Awe and what should I see but an Osprey flying towards me and then over the top - AWE-some!! That was the first Osprey I'd seen in four years. The rest of the drive to Newcastle was fairly uneventful with the odd sighting of Magpie and the usual collection of flat animals in the road. I had to try to get some more birds that I don't see up here before it got dark so I did a drive by on a couple of lakes which produced a Great Crested Grebe, a Moorhen and about 20 Coots - not bad for just driving by but I didn't have time to stop!! The drive back up early on Saturday morning gave me a view of a Fox sauntering across the road and three roadside sightings of Tawny Owl in various locations. We had a brief stop at the Osprey site again but only got views of the female standing on the nest calling for her mate. We were on the ferry before too long and sailing past Lismore...
...the folly that no one takes any notice of...
...because they are too busy looking at Duart Castle. It was nice to see Torosay Castle, just to the right of Duart in the photo, lit up in the sunshine as we sailed back in to Craignure.
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