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...