Isle of Mull Trip 28/5/09 - 31/5/09 DAY ONE

DAY ONE: The Journey to Mull

We left the house in Whitley Bay at 8:45am on Thursday morning. We arrived in Oban harbour at 2:30pm so we had time to go and look for black guillemots. On the sea there was 2 RB mergansers, 2 mallards and 30+ herring gulls. Just when we thought there was going to be no black guillemots, a pair floated straight in front of us giving

us opportunities for photos. There were quite a distance away although still a pleasure to see. When we got on the ferry 45 minutes later, we went up on deck and saw a great black-backed gull flying along with the ship. People were feeding it crisps etc. Sadly, nothing else was seen from the deck and we didn't see a Manx shearwater like we had wanted. But never mind! When we arrived in Craignure, we looked for the pair of black guillemots there but there was no sign of them. On the way to the hostel in Tobermory we saw 3 buzzards and a few hooded crows but not much else. A bit later on that night when we were returning from the pub at 8pm(!), we saw an otter swimming under the bridge we were standing on. It sat on a rock for 20 secs about 10ft away from us. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera as we had just been to the pub but it was still a very special view!

One of the many gulls in Oban Harbour

The friendly great black-backed gull on the ferry.

Black Guillemot