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Magic Mull - part 4 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

by Mike McNamee Published 01/08/2016

The Wild Life

Mull is a magnet for animal watches of all persuasions. The seas are crystal clear with whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals in abundance. In the air you will find patrolling golden and sea eagles; indeed we saw so many golden eagles we gave up bothering to get the binoculars out! We did not see any sea eagles although there were many reports from other tourists and on the bulletin boards. Otters are the other delight of Mull and can be seen almost anywhere on the rocky coastlines. We watched a mother and two cubs playing off Penyghael for about 45 minutes.

The one iconic bird we did not see was the corncrake. Resident on Iona and in the fields around Fionnphort we heard them a lot but they are very elusive! You cannot miss their noisy cackling but need good directionfinding ears and a patient eye.

The puffins resident on Staffa are a great attraction. As soon as the tourists sit down on the grassy slopes on the north of the island the puffins come out, secure in the knowledge that the humans (and their dogs!) will keep the skua and other predators away. None of your big lens stuff required here, 100mm is plenty and sometimes you have to wait for them to move back a little! Those of us who have seen these pretty little birds are a bit blasé about them - not so the Japanese tourist we sat beside who was buzzing with excitement at her first look!

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