Birthday on Eagle Island.......Day 7

 Today was my birthday so I wanted to spend it somewhere really special. With the weather forecast predicting a storm coming in from the West the next day this was also our only chance to get over to Eagle Island, also known as the Isle of Mull.

 It meant an early start but first I had to retrieve the trail cam from the garden or be inundated with hundreds of birds clips taken throughout the day while we were out. No time to check the cam before leaving so that would have to wait until we returned from Mull. A half hour drive down through Fort William to the Corran Ferry was our first destination. The Sun was just making it's appearance over the mountains as we got the 5 minute ferry across Loch Linnhe.

 We disembarked and started our 90 minute drive across Morven to catch ferry number two at Lochaline. It is such a remote area full of dramatic landscapes and stunning Lochs. It is also a great place to see Red Deer as they congregate on the hills nearby.

 The ruggedness of Morven.

 We arrived in Lochaline and had a bit of a wait for the next ferry so watched the Cormorants, Oystercatchers and Common Seals along the Sound of Mull. The ferry only takes 20 minutes from Lochaline to Fishnish on Mull. You can usually stand on the deck and search for Otters, birds and Cetaceans but with the Covid restrictions in place we were confined to our car. 

 Waiting for the ferry to Mull with my new personalised Raptorwatcher travel mug, very apt for today.

 Arriving on Mull we headed South to follow our usual circular route. A quick stop at Craignure for the charity shop and then continuing on our way up into Raptor's paradise. Buzzards were everywhere, and distant ones at altitude always caused immense excitement making us think Eagles, til we got the binoculars on them.

 Some Buzzards were closer than others 😀

 Numerous Kestrels were also seen hovering around the jagged cliff faces.

 Mull is an amazing island with stunning scenery and breath-taking wildlife, the kind of place you never want to leave. Scenery of Mull.

 Red Deer could also been found over most of Mull. 

I think this Stag is saying "I can see my house from here!" 😉

 Turning off the main road back to Salen and heading towards Fionnphort which leads you to the ferry across to Iona(a place we still haven't managed to visit) is a good place to search the shores for Divers. Both Great Northern & Red-Throated Divers were seen.

 If you get out often enough to look for wildlife(we unfortunately don't get out enough) then every now and again you are rewarded with a mind-blowing encounter. Scotland though provides these most days, and today just became one of those days. Continuing on towards Salen, a Raptor in a hunting stoop shot down the hillside and over the road in front of us and down among some felled trees in the glen. Not quite Peregrine speed but still very impressive. It came back up with prey which looked to be a rabbit. The majestic Golden Eagle circled once with it's prey and then a second Eagle landed further on by the roadside calling, The hunter returned to it carrying the prey, and then they both disappeared out of sight down into the glen. The Natural World had blown us away yet again, though I do sort of wish that I had a better camera.

 What a way to spend my birthday. Our time on the Isle was coming to a close so we needed to get back to Fishnish to catch the ferry back to the mainland. On our way back across Morven, as it was later in the day the Red Deer were now closer to the road than before.

 The view back over Loch Linnhe to the Nevis mountain range.

 It was getting dark when we arrived back at the farm so while Majella started tea I turned on the laptop and uploaded the SD card from the trail cam. It is always exciting when you open the file and find numerous video files filmed during the early hours of the morning.This time was no different.Nothing much happened til around 4.30am then this appeared on the trail cam in the garden. PS Also need new HD trail cam for better footage lol 

 A Scottish Wildcat? There are no neighbours and no cats on the farm. The clips have been sent to Saving Wildcats and they cannot confirm from the footage if it is a Scottish Wildcat or hybrid but still an extremely exciting mammal to see on the camera.She's actually eating Hedgehog food that I put out. An awesome way to end my 50th birthday and then even better Majella had bought me a birthday cake 😉🎂

Photos by Stuart Pike & Majella Fox 

Many thanks for continuing to follow our Scotland adventure and for waiting the extra day for this update due to my illness. I do hope you are finding it enjoyable, informative and maybe even entertaining. 

Still 5 days left to come, so much more to see.

Stay safe.

  

 

Tales From The Highlands

Day 7 - Some People Have No I-deer

  It was our last day around Fort William so a drive down the Road To The Isles to Mallaig was chosen for our last excursion.There wasn't a lot of traffic, the only place with any amount of people was Glenfinnan monument which we decided we would stop at on the way back.
  The first place we parked was at a view point overlooking Loch Nan Uamh, a few miles prior to Arisaig.From here we watched a Great Northern Diver and a few Seals on the rocky islands.

  By this time it was getting towards lunchtime so we headed down one of our favourite roads to have our picnic.As you enter Arisaig from the South there is a road sign that says Rhu 3.5 miles.It takes you in and out of bays til you reach where it ends at a private estate but you can park up and look over to the isles of Rum and Eigg.We had no company except for a few displaying Red-breasted Mergansers in the bay.

  On the way back we met a road block.

  We stopped at another small inlet to watch Grey Herons, Hooded Crows, Gulls and Curlews.
  Me photographing Curlews.

  Curlew, Herring Gull & Hooded Crow.

  Finally I managed to get a photograph of a Buzzard.This was the 26th Buzzard of the trip so far but the first I photographed :)

  If you park in the main car park on the outskirts of Mallaig you can check out the islands for more birds.They were full of Gulls, Cormorants and Shags.

  There wasn't much in the harbour except for a guy doing his best to annoy the Gulls by flying his drone through them.We left Mallaig and headed home but first stopped at Glenfinnan.

  The church at Glenfinnan.

  The Glenfinnan Viaduct used in the Harry Potter movies as the train travels to Hogwarts.We have only ever been across it by steam train once, a long time ago.

  Glenfinnan monument at Loch Shiel.

  Now for the ranty bit.We noticed a couple of Red Deer stags by the river and were taking photos from the bridge.As you can see you could get pretty good close ups from where we were.

  Unfortunately some people decided this wasn't good enough and went down to the river to get as close as possible.I am all for getting close and interacting with Nature but not at the risk of the welfare of the wildlife.If the stag had decided to charge they would have had no chance.Luckily he ignored them for the idiots they were.These people need to have a bit more respect for wildlife.

  More wildlife and new bird sightings to come tomorrow :)

  

30 Days Wild:Day 21 - Birds & Beach Cleans

 
  After a morning of watching the usual suspects in the garden we decided to head for the beach.So a half hour drive across Pembrokeshire to the West coast near Castlemartin.
  The beach was not exactly crowded :)

  We walked a trail along the dunes to begin with and found lots of Linnets & Stonechats.

Male Linnet

  Male Stonechat

  Along the trail we also had great views of this Buzzard using the wind to hover over the hills.

  Back on to the beach and there were lots of washed up Jellyfish around.

  Rock pools

  Of course there is no point going to a beach if you are not going to take a bag with you and help pick a few items of rubbish up and take them away.Just think each bit of plastic or rope you pick up could be saving a Gannet or a Seal for example.Get the kids to do it when you take them to the beach, give them a bag each and say whoever collects most gets an ice cream ;) (then buy them one each anyway) Do the 2 Minute Beach Clean and help wildlife.

  My 2 minute beach clean turned into about 10 minutes as it takes me longer than most people to get back up after bending down to pick something up lol but most the things we collected were plastic bottles (some very recently discarded, one was an Irish milk bottle(out of date 2008) and has been washed across the Sea.The rest were odd bits of plastic, a toilet seat and lots of rope, most likely discarded by fishermen out at sea :(

  It doesn't take long to remove this amount of plastic and rubbish from a beach, do it and help save our Wildlife :)

Thanks for reading :) get out there, enjoy yourself but help our wildlife too.