April.

April was a bit of a mixed bag with the weather - a bit of sun, a bit of rain and a tremendous day of blizzard conditions. Quite a few of the migrant birds returned too.

Adders were on show all month.

Black-tailed Godwits in the blizzard.

Chaffinch in the garden.

Red Deer outside the house.

Snakes-head Fritillary on Iona.

Great Northern Diver coming into summer plumage.

Golden Plover arrived in good numbers.

Hen Harriers put on a good show.

Female Hen Harrier.

Iceland Gull on the patch.

Lapwings started breeding.

Mountain Hares are still around but the numbers are low this year.

Northern Wheatears were a welcome sight.

Quite a few Otter cubs around.

Puffins arrive in April.

Ring Ouzel was a cracking bird to see.

Short-eared Owl were pairing up.

Starling is a bird often overlooked.

Sundew were starting to emerge.

The Tawny Owls were breeding in the barn.

The views were spectacular!

Whimbrel passage was good.

A Wren was breeding in the brambles.

Quite a few young White-tailed Eagles were hanging around - 11 was my best count.

The adult birds were preparing for a new arrival.

Willow Warbler heralds the start of summer for me.

September

I'm catching up with things eventually. A selection of photographs from throughout the month.

Bar-tailed Godwit is an annual bird on Mull but we don't get many.

 Black-tailed Godwit is much commoner.

 Curlew.

 Some nice views of Red Deer through the month.

 Golden Eagle with a full crop.

 Golden Eagle on the hunt.

 Grey Heron sunbathing.

 Great Northern Diver with a flattie.

 Greenshank on it's own.

 Greenshank in triplicate.

 Hooded Crow is a popular bird.

 Otter.

 Raven having lunch.

 Skylark - look at the plumage on that!

 Sparrowhawk - just stunning.

 A migrant Whinchat.

 There had to a White-tailed Eagle too.

Newcastle

A trip to Newcastle had to include a bit of birding. It was nice to catch up with a few old faces (you know who you are). We don't have Moorhen and Coot on Mull so it was nice to catch up with them. Plenty of Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch, Stonechat, a couple of Common Whitethroat...

...and a nice Whinchat.

A flock of about 70 Lapwing had 25 Dunlin and a single Black-tailed Godwit sharing the space.

There were five Snipe close by while an Avocet fed in the shallows.

Little Egret is a regular sight in Northumberland now but it's been a while since I'd seen one.

These Swallows have already featured in Ipin's blog so it was nice to see that they were still there but definitely ready to go.

Just outside the hide we could see 7 Ruff but there was only one close bird and that was hard to see!

A Caspian Gull a bit further up the coast was a must see bird.

Eider ducks were plentiful in the harbour...

...as were the Starlings.

Plenty of other common birds were seen so it wasn't a bad haul for  a couple of hours in the field. Got to have an Oystercatcher in because it'd be rude not to.

The reason for the visit to Newcastle was my daughters wedding so the father of the bride has to be there!