Been to Mull many, many times ...it's wonderful. I'd advise you to hire a guide for a day or your first day. They'll pick you up, either from the Ferry or Tobermory possibly Salen too. Usually a packed homemade lunch is provided including tea and coffee. They'll take you to the 'hotspots' for certain wildlife, of course nothing's garunteed. Then the rest of your holiday you can do your own thing...or go to the areas the guide took you too.
Have a great time !
Robert Farmer said
Sun Apr 14 4:53 PM, 2013
I would add my recommendation for the 'discover mull' tours. Arthur's blogs will give you a feel for the format and what you might see.
We went last year and aside from the wildlife, found the tour very helpful in better understanding the geography of the island which meant we had a few places in mind to re-visit under our own steam. For that reason, I would suggest you do the tour early in your stay if at all possible.
Likewise, another 'must see' trip was the boat trip run by http://www.mullcharters.com/popular.html which gave us unbelievable views of white-tailed eagles being fed from the boat. We were there in August so the young had already fledged but the adults were still keen enough to come down for the free feed. I was able to take some really good pictures too. (see here if you are interested - http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=425708). I will definitely be repeating that experience in the future.
Strangely enough we missed out on otters, "they're everywhere - you can't go wrong" but ironically, managed to see them at Leighton Moss on the way home.
-- Edited by Robert Farmer on Sunday 14th of April 2013 04:57:19 PM
chrisgilbane said
Sat Apr 13 5:00 PM, 2013
We went up to mull for a week last year, and it really was one of the best places I have been in a long time both in terms of wildlife and scenary. In terms of a couple of recommendations obviously there are many many wildlife tours and birding trips but a couple that I would highly recommend: http://www.discovermull.co.uk/ http://www.turusmara.com/
If your going at the right time of year and can get out to lunga, one of the tresnish isles, it really is fantastic - more puffins in one place than can really be believed, and if you walk to the far end of the island there's a really good sea stack which stands out in my memory because of the number of guillemots (and other birds of course)
The hills/moors around dervaig where good for walking and short eared owl. That said, if you get out into any of the countryside and keep an eye out you've a great chance of seeing something different. The memory that sticks with me is the White Tailed Eagle we saw when walking in one of the glens, we spent a memorable few minutes sat on the ground watching this huge bird flying.
Its a great place to go
Chris
-- Edited by chrisgilbane on Saturday 13th of April 2013 05:00:50 PM
-- Edited by chrisgilbane on Saturday 13th of April 2013 05:01:32 PM
Pete Astles said
Sun Apr 7 3:50 PM, 2013
Thanks joe sounds fantastic
Joe Wynn said
Sun Apr 7 3:33 PM, 2013
Funnily enough I just got back yesterday from a holiday there, not a true birding holiday but saying that I did get a fair bit done. Most people are interested in trying to get the archetypal White Tailed Eagle shot and most people go on the boat the Lady Jayne, run by a couple from Mirfield of all places and really good fun when I went out on Wednesday. They throw a fish off the back when the eagle comes near and he (as apparently its the male eagle usually) catches it. May take a bit of waiting but I think all the non-birders were satisfied after the eagle spent only about three minutes around the boat. I nearly missed it too! They also stop at interesting birds on the way home so I also got Great Northern Diver, Common Scoter, Black Guillemot and Otter. Well worth it, even if it's a bit on the pricey side. If you don't fancy that there's always watching the eagles from the island itself, the east end of Loch Na Keal is good as is the formalised eagle viewpoint. When we went to the latter we didn't even go in and got both eagle species!
For stuff like Hen Harriers there is no real substitute I don't think for just driving about the island, we found the road between Craignure and Finport was great for them and when combined with a trip to Iona you might also get Corncrake (though we didn't as we're a bit too early). If people are up for a big walk (and towards the top it's pretty icy too) Ben More's a good excuse to bird yielding Shorties and Harrier for us, the former being quite easily found sitting in tussocks! Buzzards are pretty much as widespread as you can get, whilst I never found a reliable Golden Eagle they're quite easily seen on passing and we picked up at least 3 individuals over the week.
Calgary Bay is very nice and non-birders like it as its a beach, but I struck lucky there with Snow Bunting and Rock Pipit, the latter not too interesting but still these were the first decent shots I've had of one. Any of these bays are worth checking early in the morning for passage waders, we were nearer Loch Na Keal and regularly had Greenshank along the shore there. Otter are apparently present on most rocky coastline and people have reccomended various sites but I connected at none of them, instead finding a random set of mother and young somewhere on the south shore of Loch Scridain. We spotted them when driving, so as we went towards Iona we had our attention split between Otters and Hen Harriers! What I would suggest is keeping an eye out for them whenever you're on a rocky beach, they're probably present.
In short we racked up 64 species of bird (including a Barn Owl I missed sitting in the middle of the car!) and a fair few mammals without really making a concerted effort. My highlight though was putting a feeder out by the roadside and getting Yellowhammer on it, setting up a makeshift hide and watching them from dawn. In short, the birding's great and the photo opportunities are there, and I would be very suprised if you didn't connect with at least one eagle species at some point!
Good luck!
Joe
Pete Astles said
Sun Apr 7 3:59 AM, 2013
Folks
Nick Isherwood has given me an update by phone.
Welcome your experiences / tips but no need to type a lot.
Thanks
Peter
Pete Astles said
Sun Apr 7 1:06 AM, 2013
I wonder has anyone been to mull for holiday and had any tips what to do what not to do?
I did read nick hiltons account on this site which was very informative.
However I will be going on a family holiday and taking up my camera gear. So it's more general holiday keeping the none birders entertained and some general wildlife photography rather than birding as such.
It does seem quite expensive going on all the wildlife tours and I wonder can you get by without these although obviously you need to pay for the whale / dolphin one.
I'd advise you to hire a guide for a day or your first day. They'll pick you up, either from the Ferry or Tobermory possibly Salen too. Usually a packed homemade lunch is provided including tea and coffee. They'll take you to the 'hotspots' for certain wildlife, of course nothing's garunteed.
Then the rest of your holiday you can do your own thing...or go to the areas the guide took you too.
Have a great time !
We went last year and aside from the wildlife, found the tour very helpful in better understanding the geography of the island which meant we had a few places in mind to re-visit under our own steam. For that reason, I would suggest you do the tour early in your stay if at all possible.
Likewise, another 'must see' trip was the boat trip run by http://www.mullcharters.com/popular.html which gave us unbelievable views of white-tailed eagles being fed from the boat. We were there in August so the young had already fledged but the adults were still keen enough to come down for the free feed. I was able to take some really good pictures too. (see here if you are interested - http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=425708). I will definitely be repeating that experience in the future.
Strangely enough we missed out on otters, "they're everywhere - you can't go wrong" but ironically, managed to see them at Leighton Moss on the way home.
-- Edited by Robert Farmer on Sunday 14th of April 2013 04:57:19 PM
http://www.discovermull.co.uk/
http://www.turusmara.com/
If your going at the right time of year and can get out to lunga, one of the tresnish isles, it really is fantastic - more puffins in one place than can really be believed, and if you walk to the far end of the island there's a really good sea stack which stands out in my memory because of the number of guillemots (and other birds of course)
The hills/moors around dervaig where good for walking and short eared owl. That said, if you get out into any of the countryside and keep an eye out you've a great chance of seeing something different. The memory that sticks with me is the White Tailed Eagle we saw when walking in one of the glens, we spent a memorable few minutes sat on the ground watching this huge bird flying.
Its a great place to go
Chris
-- Edited by chrisgilbane on Saturday 13th of April 2013 05:00:50 PM
-- Edited by chrisgilbane on Saturday 13th of April 2013 05:01:32 PM
For stuff like Hen Harriers there is no real substitute I don't think for just driving about the island, we found the road between Craignure and Finport was great for them and when combined with a trip to Iona you might also get Corncrake (though we didn't as we're a bit too early). If people are up for a big walk (and towards the top it's pretty icy too) Ben More's a good excuse to bird yielding Shorties and Harrier for us, the former being quite easily found sitting in tussocks! Buzzards are pretty much as widespread as you can get, whilst I never found a reliable Golden Eagle they're quite easily seen on passing and we picked up at least 3 individuals over the week.
Calgary Bay is very nice and non-birders like it as its a beach, but I struck lucky there with Snow Bunting and Rock Pipit, the latter not too interesting but still these were the first decent shots I've had of one. Any of these bays are worth checking early in the morning for passage waders, we were nearer Loch Na Keal and regularly had Greenshank along the shore there. Otter are apparently present on most rocky coastline and people have reccomended various sites but I connected at none of them, instead finding a random set of mother and young somewhere on the south shore of Loch Scridain. We spotted them when driving, so as we went towards Iona we had our attention split between Otters and Hen Harriers! What I would suggest is keeping an eye out for them whenever you're on a rocky beach, they're probably present.
In short we racked up 64 species of bird (including a Barn Owl I missed sitting in the middle of the car!) and a fair few mammals without really making a concerted effort. My highlight though was putting a feeder out by the roadside and getting Yellowhammer on it, setting up a makeshift hide and watching them from dawn. In short, the birding's great and the photo opportunities are there, and I would be very suprised if you didn't connect with at least one eagle species at some point!
Good luck!
Joe
Nick Isherwood has given me an update by phone.
Welcome your experiences / tips but no need to type a lot.
Thanks
Peter
I did read nick hiltons account on this site which was very informative.
However I will be going on a family holiday and taking up my camera gear. So it's more general holiday keeping the none birders entertained and some general wildlife photography rather than birding as such.
It does seem quite expensive going on all the wildlife tours and I wonder can you get by without these although obviously you need to pay for the whale / dolphin one.
Thanks
Peter