Tuesday 3rd June

Jack did a Mull Nature Explorer today with 7 guests and Ben helping out. The weather was overcast, with short spells of rain and sunshine and strong westerlies.

The Tour started at a sea loch, where Jack saw a pair of white tailed eagles perched proudly in a tall pine tree, surveying their territory! This was an incredible sight for the guests to see, the pair together, and a great way to start the morning.

While driving along the loch, everyone in the van was enjoying seeing many types of juvenile birds, at the roadside. There were oystercatchers, lapwing, ringed plovers and some greylag goslings.

After this, Ben spotted an otter swimming closely offshore in the swash. The guests then quietly got out the van and remained very still, then the otter came on to shore and gave some excellent views scratching itself before going back into the water to hunt again!

Yellow flag Iris

The morning just carried on getting better and better as the tour was about to enter a golden eagle territory. The golden eagle did not disappoint either, a pair was soaring the cliffs above everyone’s head and returning to the nest, a guest managed to get an excellent picture of the golden eagle where you can see the eagle carrying small prey.

The guest's great picture of the golden eagle

So by the middle of the day just 2 hours into the tour, everyone on the tour had brilliant views of all three of the big three, both eagles and otters. And everyone was exhilarated by the sightings, with a really nice bond starting between all the guests.

After a quick toilet break, the tour parked up by a white tailed eagle nest and had another pair of white tailed eagles and the male eagle coming into land on the nest. Jack then in the corner of his eye noticed a OSPREY which don’t breed on mull and are seen very infrequently passing through. The osprey carried on flying past the eagle nest, then there was a white-tailed eagle and osprey together and this was fantastic, as you could really see the size difference between the two birds of prey.

With this action packed day after many eagles and a surprising osprey the tour's next target species was hen harriers and first parking up at a grassland, a stunning curlew called and flew past, and a buzzard hovered in the strong wing.

At a new spot one guest got out of the van and straight away spotted a male hen harrier which made our jobs a lot easier ! Shortly followed by a stunning ringtail giving close views before flying over the road and did the same circuit twice giving superb views for all the guests. If this wasn’t enough the male hen harrier reappeared on the rolling hills to be accompanied by another male hen harrier so at one point there were 2 males in one binocular length, hunting with each other.

Female hen harrier taken on tour

At the end of the day on the drive back, a guest also spotted an Irish hare, this is a rare sight on tours and was an amazing spot considering we were in a moving car.

Today was absolutely unforgettable, and the guests made the tour so fun with great enthusiasm and humour, and we were one of the royal flush, we will back for you tomorrow short eared owl!