The merry month of May

May is a great month and this year has been exceptional here on mull. At Craignure camp site on 9th was an Ortolan Bunting, a very scarce bird which I have never see. This is the first record for Mull and for Argyll. At Lagggan Bay is a White billed diver which has been hanging around on and off for a few weeks now. White billed divers are like a large Great northern but with a huge yellow/white bill, and this is diognostic and what you really notice about them. The Sea Eagles are all now feeding young and are very active, giving our visitors great sights. Short eared Owls and Hen Harriers are having a good year and numbers seem to be increased and a drive through Glen More will regularly give sightings of these bird.

All our small migrants have arrived now and I took this image of a Common Whitethroat on 19th at Killiechronan, as I watched it building its nest.

I have received a repport of a Red Kite in Glen Bellart and summer plumaged Ruddy Turnstone and Golden Plover. The Butterflies are 'coming out' and Orange tip, Green Hairstreak, Green veined White, Peacocks and Tortoishell have all been flying. Marsh Fruttillary should be making an appearance any time now. Our Orchid will be putting on a great show. Early Marsh, Northern Marsh, Butterfly Orchids, Common and Heath Spotted. Our Blue bells are looking beautiful this month.

Spring watch II

On Glen Forsa shoreline today were 25 White Wagtails, a dozen Meadow Pipits plus Skylarks. I helped my friends Arthur and Pam Brown on a Tetrad bird count today, It was a good day out and we saw Goldcrest and Goldfinch, lots of Wheatear and Meadow Pipits. A skein of 30+ Pink footed Geese flew north over us and there were two Great northern Divers very close inshore on Loch Spelve. Along the shore road at Lochdon there were 2 Orange tip Butterflies and the gorse is looking beautiful right now.

Spring watching

At Fidden there were 23 Black tailed Godwit passing through, kindly reported by Bryan Rains (Wild about Mull) I had a great day out down at Fidden last week where there were lots of Pied Wagtails and amongst then were at least 7 White Wagtail. A flock of Golden Plover about 150 strong which I searched through, hoping to find a Dotterel perhaps. There were hundreds of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits and a couple of Twite.

There was a report of Ring Ouzel at Loch na Keal and I am sure we have breeding birds on the island, but so far this has not been confirmed. I am getting too old for climbing mountains and have to rely on others to pass on information. We have Sea Eagle chicks at two sites and others will follow these next few weeks. Its always a great feeling when our birds hatch, after watching and waiting for 38 days. Spring migrants are arriving daily and we have heard Grasshopper Warbler at Lochdon, Cuckoo and Tree Pipit. Its a great time of year.

wheatear

Spring has arrived on mull

Spring has arrived, although you would not believe it by the awful weather wqe are having, it's been wild wet and windy.

Our first spring migrants have arrived with Wheatear always the first followed by sandmartin and swallow and a couple of days ago, a willow warbler and tree pipit. It won't be long before we hear our first cuckoo (about a weeks time). We have also seen good numbers of skylarks and meadow pipits arrive in this last week. Along with pied wagtails at Fidden I saw my first white wagtail of the year. Passing through at this time of year, again at Fidden) were 150 golden plover and 100+ lapwings. At Laggan Bay we found a summer plumaged slavonian grebe and also one at Dervaigh on loch Cuin, here at Lochdon wwe still have some wigeon and teal with us, they will be moving off shortly and wader numbers and species are increasing as new birds arrive, redshank, greenshank and ringed plover. The next wader to arrive to spend the summer here will be common sandpiper and then we will know that spring has really sprung.

Rare visitor to Mull

There is a 'rare' White billed Diver on Loch na Keal, it was there again yesterday. Was first found at Laggan Bay on 1st March, then disappeared for a few days to be seen on Loch na Keal on 3rd. The bird is still around and was seen again yesteday. Its only the third record for Mull, although further out in the 'outer isles' they are regularly reported in the sea.
Both Glaucous and Iceland Gulls are still hanging around with two IOcelands beingh seen in Tobermory Harbour and a Glaucous Gull at Loch na Keal. Arthur Brown (Discover Mull) recorded a Common Coot at Dervaig (now this is a 'rare bird' for Mull) we have very few records of this common mainland bird.
Another winter bird reported is a drake Long tailed Duck, also at Laggan Bay, but a little way out at sea. A 'pair' of Common Scoter were on Loch Scridain, this is a regular site for these visiting sea ducks in winter,also have been seen on Loch na Keal.

A grey day can still produce results

It's a grey and damp day here on Mull today. A trip round loch na Keal the other day found several Great northern Diver, I counted 8 Slavonian Grebe, Shelduck, Goldeneye and Mergansers and 300 Barnacle Geese were on Inch Kenneth plus a sighting of a Merlin at Grinurn Rocks area. In Loch Scridain there were 2 Black Scoter (a pair). Spring is in the air as I watched a pair of Golden Eagles patroling their territory together and a Sea Eagle also made a brief appearance before disappearing over the hill..

Berthalot's Pipit

Another Canarian bird is this Berthalot's Pipit which was found at 2786 metres.

Blue Chaffinch

This Blue Chaffinch (Fringilla teydea teydea) is resident to Tenerife, not as numerous as our UK Chafffinch, they live in the pine woods and this bird was at 2,000 metres.

Pic of the day

A good place to find Common Snipe in winter is on the shores of loch Cuin where they can find food even when it's cold and frosty on land.

Great northern Diver in Winter plumage. In the Sound of Mull 27th Jan, up to 5 birds between Craignure and Salen today plus a pair of Goosander drakes.

Glaucous Gull

The " Lucky Glaucous Gull" that escaped the Sea Eagle, and not an Iceland Gull as I first thought ! ........silly me doesn't know his gulls. Alan

RSPB Bird count this weekend 24th-25th January

RSPB bird count this weekend. (24th-25th Jan) http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
Take part in the RSPB survey this weekend. You can submit the results online at their website.
The survey is very simple. All you need to do is watch your garden or local park for an hour on either Saturday 24th or Sunday 25th January, note down the birds you see and tell us the highest number of each species you see at any one time in the hour (this avoids counting the same birds twice.)
If you put food out every day you will get a regular amount of birds even in a small garden .

Rare bird visitors to Mull

Visitors to Mull are surprised when they discover that some 'common' birds found on the mainland are not here on Mull. For example there are no Moorhens or Coots and locals get quite excited when occasionally one is found. There are no Magpies on Mull and occasionally one flies across from the mainland only to be harassed by the Hoodies and Ravens to beat a hasty retreat back over the water. We don't have Green Woodpeckers, our only Woodpecker being the Great Spotted Woodpecker.

However we do occasionally get 'rare birds' visit our island and in 2007 there was: Black Redstart at Fionnphort (24th March) White billed Diver off Staffa (3rd May) a Sabines Gull off Iona (19th May) and Red backed Shhrike along the Grasspoint road (11th June) In 2008 we had our first ever Nuthatch at Calgary (10th April) and again at Craignure and Lochdon, (presumed to be the same bird), Lapland Bunting at Fionnphort (13th April) and Rose Coloured Starling at Dervaig (30th July) and again later at Bunessan, presumed to be the same bird. One never knows what might turn up at anytime and that's part of the joy of birdwatching I think.

http://www.mullbirds.com/RAREBIRDS.html

Leucistic birds

29th Jan 2009

Paul Langhorn from Tobermory kindly sent this image of a Leucistic Blackbird that regularly visits gardens in Tobermory.

This little bird is a Leucistic Willow Warbler which visited mull in 2003, nested successfully and raised young, (along the Grasspoint road) and to our suprise, the same bird returned the following year to nest again successfully. (2004). It was a beautiful bird, locally named the "Mull Canary" and caused quite a sensation. For those interested, there are more images of this bird and a full explaination of Leucism, on my web site in the photo gallery. It's an interesting genetic fault and also appears in mammals. http://www.mullbirds.com/Leucistuc%20Warbler.html

Mull Winter weather

Today we have battened down in preparation for the storm coming in from the north west later tonight. We are already getting strong winds which are expected to reach gusts of 80 mph. So everything is tied down, there will be a high tide this evening. The garden birds have been very active on the feeders, funny how they seem to know that we are in for a spell of bad weather.
We had a great Bird Club meeting last night which included a light hearted photograph competition. Some brave members of the bird club have been on a field trip round Loch na Keal today.
After this weather pattern has moved through will be a good time to look out for any rarities that might have been storm bound and are taking refuge on the island. Caliach Point will be a good place to check out as the strong winds blow the gulls and other birds close inshore.

Mull Bird Club members - Annual Bird Race 10th January 2009

A report from Arthur & Pam Brown: (Arthur is the chairman of the club)

Weather gale force winds and lashing rain with occasional hail - Not the best day for the bird club annual January bird race but 12 hardy souls set off at 9 30am in 4 vehicles to find as many birds as they could in 6 hours. All together 72 species were seen in the day, a very creditable amount giver the conditions, only 17 down on last year when 28 people took part in 8 vehicles. The highlights in our vehicle were Snipe and Goosander at Dervaig, a Ring billed Gull on Loch Na Keal, White Tailed Eagle at Gruline and a single Barnacle Goose on the Rugby pitch at Garmony. Good sightings of winter thrushes, Pied and Grey Wagtail and a female Hen Harrier.

The highlight from the other vehicles was Common Scoter on Loch Scridain.

Lochdon/Grasspoint

A cloudy day, but with some nice sunshine here at Lochdon. A trip to Grasspoint and I watched a Sea Eagle fly over the loch. The Lochdon/Grasspoint Sea Eagles are two of the original birds which were released from Rhum and they arrrived here around 1984. Since then they have produced many offspring of which some have paired up and are now breeding birds here on Mull. At Grasspoint in the Firth of Lorn were 2 Red throated and 1 Great northern Diver. On the road to Grasspoint a ringtail Harrier was hunting. I hear that there are a few Bramblings about.

January 2009

A cold, frosty and grey day today, not really bright enough for any photography. A trip to Dervaig and Loch Cuin in the afternoon, on the frozen shores of the loch were 12 Ringed Plover a Redshank and a Whimbrel, about a dozen Teal, not a lot else moving. Nice to get home to a log fire and a dram (perhaps)

Latest reports page

I was wondering what visitors to my site thought about replacing my 'latest reports page' with this mullbirds blog, as there may be some duplication, and I would appreciate any comments either by e-mail or through this blog.

Welcome

Welcome mull birders, For 2009 I am introducing this blog page to my web site to encourage some informal blogging between fellow birders. Interesting sightings will be taken from the blog to go on the latest reports page.

Alan (mullbirds) Spellman