Incredible Sightings for the Start of September

Well September started on the Island with a couple of days of beautiful weather, and some incredible sightings...
The Whale Watch Explorer on the 3rd of September was my first one since July 15th not to see a Minke Whale (that was 15 in a row for me!) However it was more than made up for with the appearance of 6 Risso's Dolphin, the first of the season!

Included in the 6 was this adult and calf!

As well as the adult/calf pair the group included this much older indiviudal, you can tell its older from the amount of white scarring on its body. The whole front half of this animals body looks almost pure white!

The big story in the world of cetaceans on Mull was the appearance of two Northern Bottlenose Whales in Loch Scridain. First reported to Sea Life Surveys on Tuesday the 9th we headed down in the evening for a look and were very lucky to see the two animals close to shore for over an hour! (Having been back twice to look for them since and not seen them despite reports of them being there coming in I know just how lucky we were!)

The photos are not great due to the low light levels and the smallish lense I have but you can clearly see the rounded head here.

A really unusal sighting in a sea loch as these are an offshore, deep water species, made famous when one swam up the Thames. We hope these two are both ok and that they'll make their way out to deeper waters soon!

Well the nice weather was bound not to last and the last few whale watches have experience pretty windy conditions, and despite this proving too much to find whales in we did find our smallest and most regulary seen cetacean the Harbour Porpoise!

Always a joy!

Wild Interactions

Well another fabulous week of sightings, but the highlight had to be swimming with common and grey seals over at the Cairns of Coll! Despite getting more than a little cold having only a wetsuit on, it was an awesome experience as two young grey seals came right in close to check me out! The evening was topped of with sightings of two minke whales and a couple of basking sharks including a really big shark!

Common Seal relaxing in the sunshine =)

A sunfish, an unsual looking tropical fish species that makes summer visits to the west coast with the warmer waters

White-tailed (sea) eagles soaring, this trip we were really lucky to watch two of these magnificent birds fishing just of the coastline!

Not forgetting the magic minke whale with sightings continuing to impress =)

Glorious Days and Glorious Wildlife

Not to make anyone jealous as I am sure you are all getting some lovely weather where ever you are, on Mull we have finally seen the return of summer (long may it continue!!) and the wildlife has been on top form. As well as the whales and sharks I also had my best view of Otter when I watched a mother and two cubs for over an hour!

Mum bringing in a crab =)

Mum on the rocks with an oystercatcher

A glorious Monday produced 4 minke whales surfacing very close to the boat =)

Superb!

A beautiful shark right alongside the boat

Sula's favourite is the Basking Shark and she enjoys watching them as much as we do!

Twinnies return and a new face to Mull

This last week saw Laura, my twin, return for her second visit to the Isle of Mull and my best friend Lisa make her first visit to the island. In three days we packed in a trip to Iona including a drive round the entire island and then two whale watching trips! Although the weather was more than a bit soggy the whales did not disappoint with fabulous close sightings on both trips and plenty of basking sharks in between...

Monday morning and a beautiful sunny day! Here's me and Lisa just outside Salen, Laura is off taking photos!

Laura wandering up the beach on Iona, the clouds had come but we still had a brilliant day!

Onto the whale watches and a very soggy first day, but still awesome whale really, really close to the boat and lots of sharks!

And yes that is me looking like 'You've been tangoed!"

Laura watching a Shark! =)

One of two whales seen on our second day out on the whale watch =)

On the Job

Well we're into mid July, I'm another year older and still the weather hasn't quite caught up! We've had some very windy days with big waves and quite often rather soggy rain! Saying that we have had fantastic sightings particularly of basking sharks and there have still been plenty of whales around. We even managed to find a couple of sunny, calm days in amongst those waves...

The awesone Basking Shark, sightings and numbers have been increasing as the 'summer' has progressed with some days seeing between 15 and 20 sharks, some of which we have been able to get really close to!

Here I am giving my introductory talk at the start of a trip =)

Happy to be out watching whales in the sunshine, this trip had an added bonus of Lee being onboard!

Eyeing up that Mars bar! 'Unfortunately' as a member of the crew I do not win the coveted Mars if I spot the first minke whale... for the passengers its an added incentive to keep looking!

Staffa and the Puffins

A couple of weeks ago I joined another boat trip to the islands of Staffa and Lunga, one of the Treshnish Isles where there are more than a few puffins nesting! Despite overcast conditions I still managed to take quite a few good photos...

Fingal's cave on Staffa, famous for its basalt columns and Mendelssohn's Hebridean Overture...

The whole of Staffa is made up of a mirad of basalt columns and hexagonal shaped rocks

After Staffa and a great Basking Shark just of Fingals Cave it was onto Lunga, the largest of the Treshnish Isles and the main nesting place for Puffins in the area. But it's not just puffins that Lunga boasts, Harp Rock has thousands of Razorbills and Guillemots nesting alongside Kittiwakes and Fulmars. Its an assault on the senses and a must see!

Hundreds of Guillemots nesting very close together on Harp Rock, very noisy, very smelly, but absolutely stunning!

Up close and personal with a Guillemot

'Here's looking at you!'

Razorbill's have to be one of the most hansome sea birds with its brilliant black plumage and that wonderful white line that runs down the bill to the eye.

Puffin's most definately steal the show on Lunga! So charismatic, so obliging and if your quiet and move slowly you can get in really really close to these wonderful little birds!

Return of the Photos

Well apologies for the long time since I last posted photos on this Blog, its been a busy few weeks what with plenty of trips and moving into a new visitor centre... any ways here a few photos from the last few weeks..

As we have moved into June and July we are seeing more and more Basking Sharks on our trips... These guys can reach up to 10m in length!

16th June proved a great trip with 8 bottlenose dolphins greeting us on our way back in after some wonderful whale sightings...see below...

Minke Whale! This youngster surfaced right next to the whale watch boat and a little later one we found three whales feeding amongst diving gannets and various other birds

This is the reason there was so much activity.... our plankton trawl produced an absolutey massive amount of plankton, the basis of the food chain...