Thursday 12th June

Jack and Ben did a Mull Wilderness Explorer, while Ewan was on a private evening tour.

Jack and Ben started the day off on fire, seeing a juvenile white-tailed eagle, then two adults chased the juvenile bird off their territory right in front of all the guests! Now that does not happen every day, especially as it was just a quick pit stop before arriving at the start of the walk.

What a way to start the day off, to continue the momentum the tour arrived at the loch where the walk was beginning and Jack spotted an otter just swimming close offshore. The guests all got out of the van quietly and viewed the otter from a sensible distance. The otter gave prolonged views, chewing away before coming to a shore to rest on the chestnut seaweed. The tour decided to leave the otter to rest but what a wonderful sighting it was 3 white tailed eagles and an otter before the walk had even begun !

Eventually the walk began, and the weather was great, 17 degrees with a little breeze. At the start of the walk there were some great wading birds oystercatchers and lapwings with juveniles and common sandpipers always calling. Walking through a deciduous woodland there were some stunning calls off tree pipit, spotted flycatcher, willow warbler, chaffinch, whitethroat it was a beautiful background with such a variety.

Then sitting down for some lunch we had an eider zoom by reaching up to 70mph! Also, a large group of shags started diving, catching some fish just at the mouth of the loch. When we just finished our lunch, Jack spotted a majestic golden eagle gliding low whilst being chased by a kestrel and constantly mobbed! Just remarkable, and all the guests got on the golden eagle, and it kept on disappearing and reappearing over the mountain.

Along the walk, there was an abundance of carnivorous plants round-leaved sundew and milkwort, which both mainly target small invertebrates.

Then the tour arrived at a quiet beach, Jack also spotted another otter and there was a large array of birds shelducks, ringed plovers, black guillemot’s and oystercatchers were all on the beach. Ben went for a wonder and found a large female adder as well just next to the beach ! This was just such a wonderful walking tour with all the main species seen and the weather holding out for us the whole time not raining until we got back in the van which was very polite.

Female Adder