Two Go Mad on Mull (Part One)

Well! That was a holiday and a half. Since I sent you the postcard we did see white-tailed sea eagles AND we saw an otter, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

My darling hubbie and I decided that for the first time in 20 years, we would take a holiday with just the two of us. It actually felt quite daring and certainly came with more than a smidge of guilt at leaving behind our daughters (who are however almost 17 and 20). But one Friday in August, straight from work, we headed off on our adventure.

We stayed in Lancaster on that night, just to break up the driving, and then headed off to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust Centre at Caerlaverock in Dumfriesshire. We are members of the WWT so we showed our cards and went through into the site. As we walked out into the sunshine, Hubbie immediately saw a fabulous brown hare! It was just a glimpse and off he went. Disappointed he didn't stay longer, we turned to walk down the path only for him to run out in front of us again and stop long enough for us to take some pictures. What a thrill! We set off again, down to one of the hides, to see if we could see ospreys fishing in the Solway Firth. We sat in the hide for aaages but nothing. I think they didn't fancy fish that day! On the way down to the hide we had been very close to some young looking rabbits, they were so sweet. Caerlaverock also boasts Natterjack toads on their wildlife list but in the end we ran out of time to ask the warden to help us see them. We saw quite a few other birds, including the barnacle geese they have there, but the day was certainly made by that hare.

We moved on and drove through Ayrshire, ‘Burns Country', through some beautiful countryside, as swallows and house martins swooped over the fields alongside us.

The next day we drove up through the Trossachs (which Hubbie nicknamed the Loch District, very original), along the edge of Loch Lomond. We stopped at the bottom of the loch and it was heartening to see an abundance of bees on the wildflowers there. As I'm sure you all know all bees are experiencing problems just now, not just the honey bees. There were several types of bee on the flowers around us but I had forgotten to take my bee guide with me so I have yet to identify them all (although one was probably a common carder bee) but it was so interesting to see the variety in such a small space. We could have quite happily stayed in the Trossachs and not ventured further but Mull was calling so we headed further north.

We drove through the spectacular Glencoe on our way to Fort William. Glencoe is a strikingly different environment from the Trossachs yet they are only a few miles apart. Not surprisingly, we saw sheep here, lots and lots and lots of sheep. Sheep are abundant in most rural areas of Scotland but it always seems to me to be particularly poignant to see them in the Highlands. In the late 18th century most crofters were driven out of their homes, and their homes burned so they couldn't return, because the lairds realised that they could make more money by using the land to raise sheep. They subsequently either moved to America or Canada or lived on the coastline, turning to fishing as a way to survive. Those that moved to the coasts then had a devastating effect on some of the wildlife, with man and beast competing with each other for the same food.

A visit to Fort William wouldn't be complete without a look at Ben Nevis. Ha ha...chance would be a fine thing. By this time the weather had turned and we couldn't even see halfway up, never mind the top. What a shame.

Our next stop was to be Mull. Deep breaths ladies, this is Gordon Buchanan country. On the way to Oban we stopped by a sea loch and were delighted to see grey seals resting on a small island in the middle.

The crossing on the CalMac (the nickname for the ferry company which provides nearly all the ferries to all the islands on the West Coast of Scotland) was great with perfect views of black guillemots, common gulls (which are not common at all) and some gannets too!

We had rung, from the mainland, to book on the RSPB's Eagle Watch for that afternoon. When we arrived in Mull we headed straight to the Tourist Information Office where we were given directions to the meeting point. The weather was shaping up to be warm and sunny so we were really confident that we would be successful in seeing sea eagles. Now this is where the ‘Right to Roam' first raised its controversial head. When we all arrived at the meeting point, our guides, two lovely ladies, one from the Forestry Commission and the other from the RSPB, soon joined us. They explained that unfortunately, due to the Right to Roam, several people had wandered up over the ridge where the eagles normally sat. The RSPB officer told us this with a heavy sigh. She told us that there were no footpaths up to that point but that the only reason that she could see for people venturing up there was that they must have spotted the eagles and decided to get a closer look. This of course had meant that the eagles had abandoned their usual spot and flown far off into the distance. She apologised but hoped that they would make their way back to us at some point during the watch. They did come back, well sort of. It went something like this.

Bird Watcher: ‘I think I've got something, just above that ridge over there.'
Rest of group: ‘What ridge?'
Bird Watcher (who we will call BW from now on): ‘Over there, emmm, above that ridge. Right, do you see where the trees come down on the left, and then meet the darker trees coming down from the right and there is a ridge behind it?'
Rest of group: ‘Emmmmm ...'
BW: ‘It's moved now, it's just under the clouds, in the blue bit.'
Rest of group thinks ‘Is he serious??' but say ‘Which bit?'
RSPB Officer gets the scope on the bird and says ‘OH YES! It's a buzzard!'
Rest of Group: communal sigh and ‘Aw'.

We had several conversations like this with the birds sighted being buzzards (which are still fantastic) and ravens (even better) and then...

RPSB Officer: ‘Got one, right, do you see that big cloud?'
Group thinks ‘Not the blooming cloud again' but patiently say ‘Which one?'

At this point both the ladies did their very best to guide us all to the tiny specks in the extreme distance. We all managed to see them via our bins (binoculars) but no one managed to sight them in their scopes (always called scopes to birders, telescopes are for those who want to see stars). All too soon the time was up. Now don't get me wrong, there were lots of other lovely birds around the hide and on the loch, but I couldn't help silently cursing that ‘Right to Roam'. I really felt that our so-called ‘rights' had infringed on the eagles' ‘rights', not to mention meaning that those of us who were ‘watching' in the official manner had lost out, big time! We all felt cheated and I know there wasn't one of us who wasn't blaming those who had deliberately gone too close to the eagles, in the open, when they could have simply just visited the hide - a hide that was built deliberately to draw people to one place to watch these amazing birds so as to give peace and security to all the pairs on the island.

After this we heard several stories about animals and birds being upset because of people getting too close while trying to get photographs (not experienced people like the lovely Mr Buchanan). In fact one man had been prosecuted after a pair of sea eagles had abandoned their nest because he was too close for too long. There is a great scheme here where a number of organisations are working together to protect these birds and the prosecution of this man shows that it works but it left me thinking that the Right to Roam is very much down to the conscience and sense of the individual. Sadly I think a lot seem to lack both and it's very difficult to police everywhere and so fully protect both wildlife and the environment.

We were quite sad when we left the Eagle Watch but a visit to the very brightly coloured Tobermory, in beautiful sunshine, soon cheered us up.

We booked into our B&B later that day: a lovely little place, on the edge of Lochdon, where the owners have an organic vegetable business. On our arrival our host asked us what we had been up to that day and when he heard about our disappointment that afternoon, he just said ‘Well actually, one of them sits on that little hill behind the house most mornings and then flies off over in that direction and round to Grasspoint where their nest was earlier this year.'

Well I can tell you that we were like two children on Christmas Eve that night, desperate to go to sleep to be able to wake up and see our presents. We weren't disappointed. At 6am Hubbie tumbled out of bed, opened the curtains, grabbed the bins and there it was, just as our host had said, sitting on the small hill behind us. He called to me to get up quickly, and we spent a glorious 15 or so minutes just watching and trying to get photographs. So there was Hubbie hanging out of the bathroom window, as discreetly as he could, trying to be quiet, contain the excitement and get a photo all at the same time, whilst I sat on the chair by the window saying helpful things like ‘Don't make so much noise,' ‘Have you got a good shot yet?', ‘It's still quite far away for that camera,' ‘Oh quick, it's on the move, it's flying, oh wow, OH WOW, keep clicking.' Well maybe helpful wasn't quite the word.

We were completely worn out when our host knocked on the door to say that breakfast was ready.

That day we were going to travel over to Iona to spend the night, and then return to Mull for a second night and another look for eagles, but I'm going to leave the rest of this story for next time.

Did I hear you say ‘Aw'? Well don't worry, there is an otter still to come.

Just an early reminder though, on the weekend of the 24th and 25th October, the RSPB will run its annual Feed the Birds days. There will be lots of things going on all over the country that you can take part in or just make a point of starting to feed the birds in your garden.

Check it out:

www.rspb.org.uk/feedthebirds/
www.rspb.org.uk/events/results.asp?b=ftbd

Fiona Sharp

photos (c) Fiona Sharp 2009