Where Eagles Dare

Last month we had a week's holiday on the Isle of Mull just off the west coast of Scotland, staying in a lovely bungalow in Tobermory.

Tobermory Waterfront



As we travelled from Tobermory to the various places we wanted to visit we were really surprised how BIG the Isle of Mull is considering it is only around fifty miles from the north-east tip (Tobermory) to the South-west point of Fionnphort.

These however are highland miles with nearly all the roads being single tracks with passing places and either hugging the rugged coastline or traversing the glens between high mountains. We were lucky if we averaged 20 miles per hour; and that's not including the regular stops to admire the spectacular scenery or spot some wonderful wildlife:

Coastal Road near Gribun

Heron takes Flight, Loch Na Keal

I don't want to bore you with all we did and all we saw when we were at Mull so I'll give you the abridged highlights.
The weather was very changeable as you might make out from some of the photos, where we changed between T shirts, fleeces and anoraks. It was a particularly cold and damp day when we went across on the ferry from Fionnphort to Iona to visit the famous abbey:

Iona Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Iona Abbey Cloisters

Ferry between Mull & Iona

We enjoyed our visit to Iona, but I'm sure we would have enjoyed it much more if the weather had been better. The weather did pick up a bit on our way back from Fionnphort to Tobermory and we managed to capture some of the spectacular scenery Mull has to offer, whatever the weather:

Loch Scridain

White Water on Ross of Mull



Mist over Ben Buie

On one of the few sunny days we drove to Glengorm Castle on the Northern tip of the island and had a walk round the beautiful grounds. Rather than the manicured lawns and pristine wooded grounds some ancestral piles on the mainland have, Glengorm had some spectacular geology, rugged coastline, standing stanes and wonderful machair (raised beach supporting lovely wildflowers), enjoy:

Sentinel at Glengorm

Moira at Glengorm Standing Stanes



Machair at Glengorm

Glengorm Bay

I haven't mentioned the wildlife yet but with all the wildflowers and marsh loving plants the place was buzzing with bees, butterflies and many other insects. Where there are insects you are sure to find insect eaters and Glengorm was no exception. One particular group of insect eaters we enjoyed watching was a small family of Spotted Flycatchers. They were busy feeding by flying off their perch, catching a couple of flying insects then returning to their perch. If you haven't seen Spotted Flycathers feeding before he is a little video I took as we watched them:

So we really enjoyed our time at Glengorm; one added bonus was that it had a wonderful café which had no less than four different type of soups on the lunch-time menu (my kind of place!!)
If you like butterflies I would recommend a little walk to the abandoned village at Ardmore just north of Tobermory, where we saw lots of lovely butterflies as well as spectacular scenery:

Deserted Cottages at Ardmore

Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled Wood

Scotch Argus

Anytime we went south of Tobermory we passed through the little town of Salen, which had a lovely little bay where we often stopped to look for otters. We never did find any otters there but we did get some nice photos of the bay and a couple of old fishing boats which had obviously been abandoned there a few years back:

The Ruin of Aros Castle in Salen Bay

Salen Bay and the Sound of Mull

Old Boats in Salen Bay

We visited several other places on the island where otters were reputed to be common but they were obviously hiding as we never saw any.............. So no Tarka Curry for us (it's like a Chicken Tikka Masala, but a little 'otter)..............sorry about that I couldn't resist it!!
Even if we didn't see otter, the scenery was stunning and there was other wildlife to see including seals, herons, hooded crows, herons, curlews, Irish hare (not just you common brown hare) and of course herons:

Shores of Loch Buie

Otter Spotting at Loch Na Keal

Hoodie, Loch Spelve

Seal Island, Loch Spelve

As well as being a haven for otter (invisible ones) the Isle of Mull is also the place to see eagles, and not just Golden Eagle but also the even bigger White-tailed Eagle (or Sea Eagle). Although we have seen Golden Eagle in the past it surprised me just how many of them were on Mull, we must have seen at least six during our week on Mull.
The first Golden Eagle we saw was on a little back road that runs between Dervaig and Salen, just over the hill from Loch Frisa were the Sea Eagles normally nest. At first I thought it was a Sea Eagle but looking back at the video I took of it I'm pretty certain it was a Golden Eagle (what do you think?):

So now I had seen Golden Eagle I was even more determined to see the White-tailed Eagle. Speaking to a few people we met on our travels we were told that the White-tailed Eagles had been seen around the Ulva Ferry area so on our last day on the island we headed along Loch Na Keal towards Ulva Ferry on a mission:
We stopped off at the waterfall near Ulva Ferry as this was one of the spots where they had been seen:

Waterfall near Ulva Ferry

 

Eagle Spotting

Nothing doing here, so we travelled on a bit until we found a good vantage point on a hillside where we could scan the coastline and nearby mountains. We had no sooner pitched up the telescope when not one, not two but three Golden Eagles came soaring over the hills behind us. They hung about long enough for me to get the camcorder out and capture one of them on video (worth putting the sound up for this one):

We spent another hour at this vantage point in the hope of seeing a White-tailed Eagle and just when we were about to give up we spotted a large bird soaring over a rocky hillside in the distance. I quickly got the telescope on to it and it was unmistakably a White-tailed Eagle, much broader wings than a Golden Eagle, with shorter tail and almost vulture-like in its soaring flight (success at last!!). I tried to get the camcorder on to it but it was too far away to get any decent video footage, so you will have to take my word for it.
That day we boarded the ferry back to Oban, content in the fact that we had seen Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle, even though we missed those damn otters...........looks like we will have to return another time...........such hardship!!
I'll leave you with some photos of the ferry ride back to Oban:

Gull in the Sun

Old Sailing Boat

Ivy-clad Castle

Oban Beckons

Until the next time, take care.

Teddy (no otters) Edward

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My good friend (and top birder) Jim Steele assures me the Eagle I have captured in my first video is in fact a White-tailed Eagle.

This ties in with my initial thoughts before I started to doubt myself.

I bow to his superior bird identification skills and revel in the fact I now have both Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle footage...........Hurrah!!!

 

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