Eagles, and Otter and a Load of Other Stuff!

 I can't believe that I haven't posted for over a month, we have been so busy, a couple of  weeks away, decorating and getting on with life. Our first week away was down in Staffordshire and family time so very little birding, just a few things from a visit to Chatsworth House:

Our other week away was on the Isle of Mull, this was our third time of trying to get to the island, we had originally booked for spring last year, but we all know what happened then! Then we had re-booked for last autumn, but then lock down hit again. So the only time we could fit in was the last week in June, not ideal, as there were very few sea birds about, but we still clocked up 60 species on the island, plus another couple on our travels there and back.

So I won't go into any great detail but here are some highlights:

I'll start with our only Otter sighting, we hadn't quite given up, but we had to wait until our last day! No apologies for all the photos, I did take loads!

So lets see some Eagles!

Unlike the Otter above they didn't get so close, also although we did see Golden Eagles all the photos are of White-tailed Eagles, the Goldie photos were rubbish as they were too high!

These were at Loch Na Keal,

Now on Ulva,

and one at Grasspoint.

We saw at least one Eagle every day, the most was four!

Now for some Tourist Eagles, or more usually known as the Buzzard 😂 Starting with a Buzzard chick on the nest at Loch Na Keal,

then various sightings out and about.

Staying on the raptor theme, we saw plenty of Kestrels, but didn't get any photos, but this Sparrowhawk cam to inspect the bird feeders outside our digs dining room window:

Then of course we saw may Hen Harriers, although very elusive on the photo front, they were all quite distant or I wasn't ready for a photo before they disappeared, this is the best I managed of a Male on Ulva:

Talking of the feeders they were very busy with loads of Siskin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Feral Pigeon, Collared Dove, the occasional Coal Tit, one sighting of as Lesser Redpoll and Rabbits.

Siskin

Siskin & Chaffinch

Siskin

Rabbit

Chaffinch

Elsewhere, we saw Linnet, Whitethroat, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Eider, Heron, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Oystercatchers, Red Breasted Merganser, a Cuckoo being chased by a Kestrel, Stonechat, Pied Wagtail galore, a couple of Grey Wagtail and of course the Corvids: Hooded Crow, Rook and Jackdaw.

Pied Wagtail

Jellyfish

Linnet

Ulva Ferry

Chaffinch & Great Tit

Grey Heron

Oystercatcher

North Beach, Iona

Skylark

Meadow Pipit

Starling

House Sparrow

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Lapwing

Common Sandpiper

Common Tern

So this has ended up a bit longer than I planned, but never mind, it was fun doing it!