When you are driving round an island
with just the radio for company its amazing all the things you think
of. Yesterday I was trying to think how to sum up my trip and I have
decided it could be summed up as two rounds of golf – one by a tour
professional and one by an average club golfer like myself.
From the pros round we had lots of
birdies and a few eagles. From my round the Otters were a bogey and
as I often ended up looking in the same place, some might say I had a
few Mull-igans (sorry I've been trying to get that in all week. I'll
get my coat!!). For those who don't follow golf a mulligan is when
you get a second chance to hit a shot. I often found myself stopped in the same passing places searching for Otters.
Yesterday followed the pattern of the
first three days but with fewer birds. I met two other photographers
in the morning who told me they had 31 Otter sightings in 12 days.
This was the last thing I wanted to hear having only found 1 myself!!
As we were talking we were watching a
female Otter with two youngsters. They had been very close to these
photographers (within 5 metres apparently) but by the time I had
arrived she had taken them further down the loch away from our
lenses. It was a sighting though albeit a frustrating one. Further
down the loch I came upon another Otter. Again I was frustrated. I
had parked the car and gone to the shore for a speculative look and
found this Otter bouncing along the tide line. Unfortunately it was
downwind of me so quickly picked up my scent and was off across the
loch. Still no photos.
With time getting on before I needed to
go for my ferry home I had one last look on Loch Spelve. The Loch
Spelve area is probably my favourite area on Mull. I can't explain
why. There is a house that has fallen into disrepair that I'd love
to have as a holiday house. The reason for going back here was
threefold. Firstly as I have just said I love the area. Secondly it
is where I saw my first Otter of the trip on Monday and thirdly it is
where I had the most Eagle activity.
It turns out the White Tailed Eagle I
saw on Wednesday was a bird that was released on the East Coast in
2009. I know this because it had wing tags and a satellite tracker.
I had met Dave Sexton on Monday and he was looking for a bird
released in 2009 so when I saw this one with tags and a tracker I got
in touch with him and he confirmed this was a 2009 bird and the one
that he had been tracking.
No eagles yesterday and no Otter where
I had seen it on Monday. I was leaving to return to Craignure for
the ferry feeling a bit disappointed that for the second trip in a
row I had only 1 Otter sighting in 4 days. I then caught a movement
on the beach and this time it wasn't an Oystercatcher but an Otter
heading into the surf. It then swam out a short distance, dived and
came up with a crab. It then came back towards the beach to eat it
on a small island created by the tides. I finally had some photos I
was happy with.
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Finally a shot I was reasonably happy with! |
I didn't want to push it so I kept my
distance and once it was finished its snack the Otter swam back out
to the same spot and dived again. Normally I would watch the Otter
for a while trying to work out where it was headed and then try to
get in front of it keeping it upwind of me but I didn't have time to
sit and watch this animal as I normally would because I was going for
the ferry so I decided to go all in. I clambered over the rocks to
half the distance between me and the Otter. When it resurfaced it
had another crab and this time swam straight in my direction rather
than back to its island. It came ashore 15 metres from where I was
and seemed completely oblivious to the fact I was there. I crept
forward and got within 10 metres of it munching away.
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Crab number 2 |
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Happily having a snack. Interestingly it only appeared to eat the crab body. The claws and legs were left. |
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Probably my favourite shot from the trip. An Otter doing what Otters do. |
So to go back to the golfing analogy
the trip was like one of my normal rounds. Lots of disappointment
but enough brilliance to make me want to return to Mull!!