Friday afternoon saw me chasing shadows. A report of a White-billed Diver on my patch had me charging down the road to try to cast an eye over said beast. Three minutes down the road had me on site and scanning the sea to no avail - 2 sum plum GN Diver and 1 pale billed winter plumage GN Diver. Did someone make a mistake or was I too late? It doesn't matter either way really but it would have been nice! As I returned to base there were two female Hen Harriers quartering the marsh - a nice pick me up.
Today was forecast to be showery and boy were they right. We started off viewing the WT Eagles - both birds at the nest and eventually the female taking flight and flying off. Next on the hit list were these 3 Red Deer hinds grazing at the edge of the wood. The winter coat is starting to fall away so they all look a bit rough.
The heavens opened so we made a dash for it and took shelter till it had passed. A GN Diver kept us focused as it floated along preening before heading off on another feeding foray. Nice views of Curlew, Eider, Hen Harrier and Grey Heron were had before we picked up a mother and cub Otter. A quick view for everyone before moving to a better position and superb views were had before the next torrential shower moved in - off we went again.....Golden Plover, Wheatear, Lapwing and then a rest. Two WT Eagle at the next stop, one adult male....
.....and one juv female. This is Yellow X from Skye.
After that it rained a bit just for a change. A couple of Cuckoos were seen chasing each other about - a great sighting. We also heard a Common Whitethroat today so I was well pleased that they have arrived at last - first one last year was on 2nd May and the year before 29th April.
The rest of the afternoon was quite sunny although a bit breezy. Great views of Skylark collecting nest material, Linnets foraging, Ringed Plover exploding out of nowhere and the Lapwings have finally hatched. We still needed Golden Eagle for the day so we headed off to a hopefully successful spot. On the way we noticed a shower that was passing through and we were stunned to see the strange effect - it was more like the Northern Lights than a rainbow. The photo doesn't do it justice either.
It eventually disappeared and then reappeared in a more familiar form.......
Golden Eagles were eventually located to the delight of the guests and we headed off for one more scan for Otters. We were in luck again - 3 Otter this time but the light wasn't great so we moved along just in time to see the family climb out a pose on the top of a rock - superb.
The last photo needs no explanation but who can resist it - cracking birds.
This is in no particular order from the last couple of days but it's just been pleasant to get the sun on your back. The Eagles have been showing well, Otters are ten a penny at the moment (I'll probably not see any today now).......brief pause while I try to rescue a Swallow from the caravan.....Swallow rescued 
Where was I? It doesn't matter really. The Tiger Beetle was a nice find and an opportunity to try out the camera on macro - I didn't do very well but here is a cropped shot anyway. We managed to find an Adder too but it was off like a shot. None of the paparazzi got a photo!
The Thrift is finally blooming on Mull and looking really nice nestled in amongst the rocks....
An indication of how warm it is now is this very sleepy looking Mountain Hare that didn't move when another ran over the top of it! Check out the heat haze too.
The funniest thing I've seen over the last couple of days was this Great Northern Diver. We were trundling along the side of the loch and picked up an Otter at close range, all very nice until a Common Seal popped it's head up and the Otter did the disappearing trick. Anyway, the GN Diver was just a bit further along the road so we went for a closer look. Not too far away, summer plumage, lots of oohs and aahs as it was preening. It stopped preening, went fishing and caught a crab, as they do. It seems like an awful lot of work and then they swallow them whole. Check out the bulge in the neck and he doesn't look too happy either!
I've had a couple of opportunities to get birds of prey in flight but it's usually out of the vehicle window in between passing places or it's over too quick. All of the efforts so far are blurred - plenty of time though. Three Hen Harriers soaring around was a real treat for the some of the guests as what they wanted was to see a male - he performed superbly. This Common Buzzard played hard to get but he didn't want to fly too far.
I was checking through my diaries from the past couple of years to see what the arrival dates were for a few of the birds I'm missing, Common Whitethroat, Tree Pipit, Manx Shearwater etc and they are all late this year. Where are they? They seem to be in good numbers further South but only single sightings so far on the Island. I guess they'll all appear in a rush in the next couple of weeks. I did check on my Mull list as a few people have asked so it stands at 155 species at the moment.
This Cuckoo was perched up on the wires so I was firing off a few shots waiting for it to fly. I had to move on for traffic and as soon as the camera was off it was in flight! Still a nice couple of shots though.
This last shot of a Highland Cow is just to prove that they do have eyes or at least one that I can confirm!