Catching up

I've been away for a weeks holiday on Mull. My first time up there. Wont be the last, already booked for a fortnight next year. We stayed at Killichronan Farm Cottages but first -

 

 

We (me and the wife) drove up to Oban on the Friday and stayed overnight ready for the ferry in the morning. We had a quick stroll to the harbour where 18 Black Guillemot were residing.

 

 

On turning  to go back this Hooded Crow appeared

 

We had only been at the cottage on Mull for an hour before seeing this digiscoped Sea Eagle

 

The next two images are the view from the cottage garden. 

Here's me watching a summer plumaged Great Northern Diver

 

Words cant describe just how wonderful Mull is. We had 81 species of which 5 were lifers - Golden Eagle, Sea Eagle, Corncrake, Black Guillemot and Hooded Crow.

 

Back at home a check of some nest boxes down the road on Sunday gave the following images -

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Blue Tit

A quick check on the reservoir tonight only to find all the Coot and Moorhen nests predated, not assisted with dropping water levels. I did find another GC Grebe nest but no eggs yet, on my way back I found this. Reckon it'll be Moorhen. The material is very fresh and well built so I reckon an egg or two by weekend (hopefully)

Over on the coast at the weekend I managed to find a  Razorbill on one egg and a Fulmar got up and turned it's single egg, only my second record for this species at egg stage. Having read the old literature it appears Fulmar are very difficult to get at egg stage unless the colony can be accessed. They only swap incubation roles every 4-5 days and invariably swap in the dead of night so I'm quite pleased with this early record, about a monthly earlier than last year when I caught them at chick stage.