Since Xmas I haven't really done an awful lot of wildlife photography, however a camera has never been too far from my side, I have tried a few non wildlife genres inc portrait and landscape and even went to a Pirate festival for a few shots. Despite not much in the way of wildlife I have had a trip to the Isle of Mull planned for quite some time. The trip would be for a week with my wife, brother and his girlfriend/partner, once again despite not a wildlife holiday as such the cameras were always going to take priority in the boot space in fact we even hired a 9 seater so we could take what ever we may or may not need.

We left at midnight on Thursday and arrived early for our ferry crossing at 11.00am the following morning, on route I did kindly offer to call in to Gretna green for my brother and Wendy but he pretended to not hear me.

As usual Mull did not disappoint and the usual suspects were all seen within a few days of being there. White-tailed eagles gave particularly good views on a few of our days out. Cuckoos were also easily spotted and we had a pair only 10m away from our car although unfortunately they saw us before we saw them. 

Plenty of nesting birds and we found Meadow pipit, Common gull, Oystercatcher and Ringed plover eggs quite easily as we made our way alongside some of the Lochs. The Otters were as elusive as ever for me but I did manage four sightings although on each occasion photography was out of the question as they were out in the water and far too distant and despite watching from the car they never came ashore.

Corncrake on Iona didn't disappoint and we had a bird that came out out of the undergrowth only a few metres from where we were sat, this time i was thwarted by the fact that `i had a wide angle lens on and my camera was facing away as I was taking a Landscape shot. The same bird did eventually let me take some photos of it after I had changed my lens so all was not lost.

Some of the other nice birds we saw included … Black guillemot, Iceland gull, Golden eagle, Close views of Snipe, Great northern divers, red breasted merganser to name just a few, all in all great trip and one I'm sure to make again soon!

CorncakeIsle of Iona, Scotland