Idle birds.

Thursday was a little bit breezy as you may have heard. The worst of the damage was an island wide power cut and everything is back to normal now.
Saturday I was out on tour doing an eagle special. A request to see a wild Golden Eagle by Dan and a new experience for Kevin seeing Mull in all it's winter glory. It couldn't have been a better day after the stormy weather we'd had. The landscape was covered in snow with pockets of mist in the glens and a Golden Eagle perched on a rock amongst the splendour.

The idle bird just sat there and viewed it's territory so we moved on. A Kestrel at the next stop was the best we could manage but as we stopped to take in another stunning view we picked up another Golden Eagle sitting on the ridge. Once again we waited to see if the bird would fly.  A WT Eagle appeared over the opposite ridge and landed in full view. No reaction from the Goldie as it just sat and looked across. Another WT Eagle took off from the hillside and disappeared before the first WT Eagle followed it.

What did the Golden Eagle do? It took off and dropped behind the ridge! It was a bit chilly standing outside watching these birds do their thing so when they left we headed off for a warming cup of tea. Next on the agenda was to try to locate an Otter. A good look around the loch gave us plenty of Shag, a few Red-breasted Merganser and a group of five Great Northern Divers. A group of 10 Crossbills flew across the conifers but, typically, landed out of sight. We decided to move on and got as far as the first corner and there was an Otter swimming along close to the shore. A quick bit of reversing and a scramble across the rocks gave us some stunning views of three Otters.

The Buzzards were out in force, a few in flight, but most of them were hunting from poles.

We were even lucky enough to see a few of them catch a vole. The rain started just as we were going to have lunch so we headed for a drier spot to eat. Once we found a nice spot beside a river and started lunch. There were a few Red Deer on one side, a nice male Wigeon and a young WT Eagle on the other. Once again the eagle was an idle bird that sat surveying it's surroundings. We had a bit of a laugh trying to photograph the eagle through the scope with Dans iphone. After lunch we found another eagle sitting in a tree in the distance. Our expectations were that this would be another WT Eagle but when we got into a better position it turned out to be a stunning Golden Eagle!

A superb experience of a winters day on Mull - job done!

Not the best.

A quick run out on Tuesday in some, briefly, brighter conditions. Not the best set of photographs but it's all I have. I thought it might be worth looking for Golden Eagle to start with and I wasn't disappointed. One of the birds was perched on the skyline being hassled by a Kestrel and it wasn't too long before it took flight. You can see the Goldie keeping an eye on the Kestrel in this one.

It wasn't the Kestrel that got the Golden Eagle up but it's mate was arriving on the scene.

With all the snow there are a lot of Red Deer close to the road at the moment. Nice to get one with a snowy background.

A change of location produced another Golden Eagle sitting on a rock on the skyline but it was pretty distant. The light was starting to fade as the cloud started to build up. A Buzzard was sitting on a telegraph pole and I could hear a vehicle approaching so I waited for the bird to take off.

I spent a pleasant half an hour watching this WT Eagle hoping for it to take flight.

While I waited I had a couple of Common Seals come to check me out, a couple of GN Diver were calling to each other when they surfaced, a group of 30 Shag were fishing offshore and a couple of Greylag Goose cackled their way past too.

I followed a small flock of Long-tailed Tit along the road but the light was too poor for photos. We'd seen a Peregrine outside the shop earlier in the morning but we lost sight of it as it stooped at the waders on the shore. I was surprised to find, possibly, the same bird some three hours later sitting digesting a meal.

Icing on the cake.

Saturday was another showery day - wind and hail, not a good combination! The only sensible thing to do was go for a walk in the woods. I took the opportunity to get a few shots of this stag as it posed close to the road.

The wander round the woods was pleasant enough as the trees cut down the wind speed. Not a great deal to be seen but anything is better than nothing - plenty of Blackbirds, Pheasant, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Kestrel. The 'icing on the cake' for the walk was a group of four Crossbills that landed at the top of a conifer and the male birds started to sing - stunning!

We finished our walk getting pelted with hailstones but it was worth it.
It snowed a bit on Sunday and a bit more on Sunday night. Monday morning the hills were white but best of all the wind had dropped a bit. A fairly productive day for a couple of hours shower dodging...first off was a Hen Harrier that headed off pretty quickly. Good numbers of Buzzard on the wing, Redwing flying up from the roadside, Divers on the loch, a sleeping Otter and two WT Eagle were all nice to see but hardly a photograph taken. A hail shower came blazing in just as I found two Slavonian Grebe and a Water Rail called from a rushy area. The hail stopped and I couldn't find the Slavs or hear the Rail but I did spot two Otters - which one to go for! I went for the furthest one, good choice. I just got in position and it headed straight for me!

It clambered up the rock in front of me for a better look...

...wandered past and settled down for a clean up - awesome!

The Otter moved off, the hail moved in and I left. The Hen Harrier that I'd seen earlier was floating about but it was still distant.

It landed on a post so I clambered out for a better view but I got distracted by some Red Deer jumping the fence.

No sign of the Harrier after that. My last effort of the day was a shot of a Redwing that was with a single Mistle Thrush and a few Blackbirds.