A long stormy night. The security lights kept coming on at the back of the cottage. Conscious of the fact that Red Deer had been seen in the garden recently, I esconded myself in the kitchen to see if I could get a glimpse of one. It took quite a while for me to work out that it was the wind spinning the clothes line round and round that was triggering the lights - idiot!
It started to get light just after 6am and I'd now moved into the conservatory at the front of the house and watched the tide coming in. There was a wide variety of birds feeding on the exposed mud. Curlews, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Hooded Crow, Herons, Widgeon, Greylag Geese, Teal, Mallard, Herring Gull, Black Headed Gull and even a few Sheep.
The tide came in quite quickly right up to the other side of the small lane that separated us from the sea. As the tide came in more and more birds flew in joined by a couple of Comorants. On the far side of the bay I could see a male Hen Harrier quartering a large patch of reeds. I watched this bird for several minutes before it went down on something and I didn't see it again. There had been a report on Mull Birds that a Pair of Hen Harriers had been frequenting this bay.
Although it is called Lochdon it's not really a Loch it's just a large bay in the South East corner of Mull. I must admit I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, sitting in the conservatory (I've always wanted one), eating breakfast with Jan, watching the birds and listening to Sounds Of The 60's with Brian Matthews (one of my Saturday rituals), what more could I want?
It then got even better an enormous splash, like a giant fish rise just about a 150 metres from the front of the cottage followed by another one a few minutes later and then a great V bow wave for about 50 metres going against the tide. What was it? I'd seen videos of Dolphins and Porpoise who follow the fish right into the shallow water of the bays and Sea Lochs of Mull but there were no tell-tale fins or blows, it was much too big to be an Otter but then the mystery was solved. The head of a Harbour Seal (Common Seal) popped up. The Seal was in the area for quite a while.
One interesting piece of behaviour we observed was that as the tide got higher, the Herons (there was about 5 in our sight) got out of the water and took shelter uner some bankside vegetation. It made me wonder if the Seals ever took these birds?
At one point a flock of about 20 Chaffinches, 3 juvenile Blackbirds and a Robin made their way along the lane feeding on vergeside insects. There was also some rush-hour traffic along the lane.
One lovely sight we had was of a skein of Geese (about 50) passing over the bay in the morning sunlight with a backdrop of the mountains.
Then the rain started to come in again and we had to get some supplies in. Just before we went another skein of Greylag Geese flew off from the bay and were level with the upstairs windows of the cottage and passed within 20 metres of us.
On our way to Tobermory we saw one Buzzard sitting in a roadside tree and as we passed the entance to Loch Forsa Jan saw a group of about 5 soaring above the trees, we saw another 5 in various locations around the Island on our way home including two very close encounters within about 5 metres of the car. We have noticed on previous trips to Mull that there are many Buzzards on Mull and you can get close to them but as soon as you slow down or stop they're off. We also saw a lot of Hooded Crows and some small birds we couldn't identify.
We spent some time in Tobermory a very iconic and photogenic seaside town. If you have ever watched Children's television you will see it's the setting of the imaginary town of Ballamory.
Unfortunately the Whale Watching trips and the Sea Experience Centre are closed for the season.
We returned home choosing one of the more scenic routes back to Lochdon. There are only about 4 main roadways on Mull and they're mainly single track roads and then there are some minor roads of very dubious quality often carrying the warning Weak Road. We like to get off the beaten track, hopefully to see more wildlife but we found ourselves on some quite hair raising roads on clifftops with 14 per cent gradients and one time behind a woman who appeared to be herding some Highland Cattle along a road. We did get to see the beautiful Calgary Beach and a nearby field filled with Greylag Geese and Oystercatchers. We eventually got lost and were going in a big circle. Then a sort of surrealistic experience; of passing a Land Rover parked up with the driver on the phone, we saw a few instances of this. The mobile signal on Mull is either poor or non existent and the locals obviously know where they can get a signal. A bit like when we lived in Bressingham, sometimes you could only get a signal from the upstairs bedroom but this was obviously on a much grander scale. Anyway, I digress, as we passed the Land Rover I was aware that the driver was flashing me. We pulled up a short distance later only to see the Land Rover still following us and flashing us, it pulled up behind us and the driver got out and approached the car, he looked like a young farmer, I thought he was going to give us a warning about some approaching road conditions but when he got to the car he said; "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else!" I said; "That someone else, did you owe him any money?" He said something unfathomable got back in his car and drove off.
We then found ourselves driving past the same landmarks that we'd already passed and then the weather closed in and it started to get dark and we were in the middle of nowhere - lost on Mull! We eventually found our way back to the main road and returned to Lochdon about 2 hours later than we intended to.
When we got back to the cottage the sounds of the Curlews calling in the dark was quite eerie and haunting but also magical.
If you wondered how I recovered the apostrohes, I've gone back to the iPad keyboard, it's a lot slower and clumsier for my fat fingers. If you read the Guardian today there was a Q&A session with Miriam Margolyes. Each week they ask someone the same group of questions, one of them being: "If you could bring back something that has become extinct, what would it be?" Chris Packham said the Tyrannosaurus Rex! Miriam said The apostrophe!
Keep your eyes peeled an good spotting.
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