Isle of Mull

We decided to spend our two weeks summer holiday on the Isle of Mull again as we had such a great time last year (except for having to come home early when the weather turned really nasty!).

This year the weather was amazingly good – no rain at all during the first week, and just some light rain on two mornings in the second week. Most days were sunny and warm. The wildlife was probably not quite as good as last year though. Otters were very difficult to find, and when we did find them, the views were fleeting.

However, sightings of sea eagles and golden eagles were better and more frequent than last year. Ian also had a brilliant encounter with a short-eared owl, and we had numerous sightings of both male and female hen harriers hunting.

We managed to go out twice on full day trips with Sea Life Surveys, both times the sun was shining and the sea very calm, and on both trips we were lucky enough to see minke whale, basking shark, harbour porpoise, seals and on the second trip a sunfish – a fairly rare sighting in those waters.

Sea birds were plentiful – gannet, kittiwake, fulmar, manx shearwater, storm and leaches storm petrel, common and arctic tern, great and arctic skua and various gulls. We also went out with Mull Charters, where the skipper Martin throws fish from the boat to attract the sea eagles near to the boat. We had amazing views of male and female adult sea eagles, and good views of several juvenile sea eagles flying near the nest. We also saw minke whale and basking shark from his boat.

Mull is really a magical place for wildlife, and we had another brilliant holiday there.

Sue & Ian Griffin