Mull round up

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.

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.

Crab number 2

Happily having a snack.  Interestingly it only appeared to eat the crab body.  The claws and legs were left.

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!!