Merry Christmas!!

Another selection of pictures from November and December to see you over the festive season.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - enjoy!

Mum and cub heading for the holt.

Goldcrest flitting through the gorse.

A nice view over Loch Beg.

A Redwing that was fresh in from Iceland in November.

It looks like the Raven is on the back of the sheep but it's actually on a rock just behind.

Goosander - a nervous bird up here.

Robin - I had to put one in here!

Good views of Kestrel over the last couple of months.

A passing shower with Ben More in the background - this image was shown on the BBC weather forecast.

Whooper Swans continuing their journey south. They left in the half light early in the morning.

The ever playful Otters.

Nothing more exciting than a male Hen Harrier in a blue sky.

White-tailed Eagle doing the same!

Size comparison between White-tailed Eagle and Hooded Crow.

Common Buzzard making a kill.

A pale morph Common Buzzard.

Immature Golden Eagle - very impressive bird.

A direct comparison between the two eagle species - Golden Eagle on the right.

Redwing.

Otter rolling in the seaweed.

I like this shot of Hooded Crow landing.

It was nice to see the moon a few times in December - it's been a bit wet.

Greenshank.

All the best for 2016.

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.

End of September

Just before I set off for the final tour of the month I had views of a male Hen Harrier quickly followed by a sighting of a flock of Starling being hunted by a Sparrowhawk.

The guests had requested Otters as the thing to see for the day. Around high tide we picked picked up our first Otter of the day which we watched for a good half an hour. A couple of Golden Eagle and a WT Eagle were seen before we picked up a family of 3 Otters. The youngsters had a bit of a squabble in the water...

...while a Common Seal watched us from close quarters.

Time flies when you are enjoying yourself so it was an hour and a half before we left the Otters. The usual waders were seen and another single bird of each species of eagle. There have been some impressive gatherings of Hooded Crows in various places.

Jumpy

With the migrant birds disappearing fast and just the odd bird dropping in, the local birds are always going to get more attention. A pair of Hooded Crow hang around the garden but they are still quite jumpy as a rule but this one was happy to stay put on a miserable day.

A trio of Bullfinch were seen feeding at the side of the road but the distance and dull conditions prevented any decent shots. I presume that the right hand bird will be a female as the male plumage is just starting to show on the left hand bird.

Talking of birds dropping in...a couple of Knot did hang around for a few days. They were not jumpy at all.

It seems like you can't go far without seeing an eagle over the ridge at the moment. A WT Eagle cruised along this ridge while a pair of Golden Eagle appeared to be hunting just below.

This long billed bird looked a bit like a Curlew Sandpiper from a distance but when I got a bit closer it was clearly a Dunlin. My, how it laughed!

I'm starting to see quite a few Grey Wagtails around now.

A Golden Eagle flew across the road quite low and it was interesting to see there was quite a bit of white in the tail. It was more noticeable on the top of the tail but a nice sighting all the same.