Misty Mountain Hop

As part of my lifestyle change plans I have been considering for some time a possible move to Scotland and in particular the West Coast and it’s adjacent Islands. Mull has always been a particular favourite of mine with its wonderfully diverse, yet compact landscape, friendly inhabitants and last, but not least, fantastic wildlife.

So it was that a week last Saturday I and the Twasser (VW’s incredibly uneconomic 4X4 cross between a Golf and a Tiger Tank) boarded the ferry at Oban and set sail for Craignure. The plan being to spend most of the week house viewing around the Island, with hopefully a little time left over for some wildlife.

 Speed bonnie boat

I certainly will not be boring you with the details of the house viewing, but let’s just say I may be about to rival  Kirsty and Phil with my new series entitled “Right Location - Wrong House, Right Price - Wrong Location, Right House - Wrong Location, Right House - Wrong Price, etc, etc, etc”.

Following my normal routine, once landed, I nipped up to Tobermory to get a few essentials – milk, wine, bread, wine, eggs, wine, cheese, wine, etc. before heading across to my base at Dervaig. This time however as soon as the goodies were unloaded into the rented cottage, I was round at the neighbours checking out their house, which had just come on the market.

Viewing 1 completed, I returned to the cottage and went out onto the decking behind the kitchen door for a well earned coffee break. Scanning the hill tops – as you do – I spotted one large and two smaller dots. Quickly grabbing the bino’s my hopes were confirmed, as I watched a Golden Eagle being pestered by a pair of Buzzards. Damned demanding this birding on Mull, sometimes you have to go all the way to the back garden.

After a pleasant evening renewing old acquaintances in the bar of the local hotel, Sunday morning involved house viewing 2, down at Lochdon. The owners, who were charming, revealed a little of their life on Mull over a cup of coffee and even suggested another house I might like to look at, near to where I was staying.

Loch Na Keal

The Island to the Right is Inch Kenneth
The site of a house which proved to be the last home of Unity Mitford

 

As I was in the southern half of the Island, after leaving Lochdon, I carried on down to Loch Scridain and then round the south of Ben More before returning home via the southern shores of Loch Na Keal. Although I stopped many times, to scour the hills and mountains where I had seen eagles before – this time I was out of luck. Similar searches of the loch shores for otters also came up blank, although, one of Mulls ubiquitous hoodies decided to give me the evil eye while I took his picture.

 

Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix)

Back at Dervaig, I left the Twasser at the cottage and walked a few hundred yards up the hill, to look for the house I had been told was for sale (very nice, very expensive). Whilst loitering around the property, (trying not to look like a burglar casing the joint), I heard a commotion above me and there, about thirty meters above my head was a White Tailed Eagle, being mobbed by yet another Buzzard.

Of course, the man who goes nowhere without his camera, was at the time, without his.......!

Here’s one that I photographed earlier. White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

I nearly typed “here’s one I shot earlier” as I, like many other photographers, often do, when referring to taking a photograph. In this particular instance, this has rather sinister connotations, as the White Tailed Eagle was persecuted to extinction in Scotland during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The last British white-tailed eagle is recorded as being shot in 1918.

After a faltering start, involving reintroduction programs on Rum and Skye in the 1970s, the White Tails finally got going in earnest on Mull, and as of last year there were 15 breeding pairs on the Island. The controversy regarding their reintroduction has not gone away, however. Talking with the locals, there seems to be a renewed unrest amongst the farming community, who are again complaining about the increasing number of lambs taken by the WTEs.

In economic terms it is easy to argue that the tourist revenue that the eagles bring to Mull (estimated at £5 million) far, far exceeds the value of the lambs taken – and they are taken (during my short visits to the Island, even I have witnessed at least one lamb being carried to a nest). But, I can also understand the farmers zealous protection, care and concern for their animal’s welfare, that generations of struggling against nature and the elements has instilled in them. Despite the compensation payments and various pro WTE arguments, it must very much run against the grain for Mull’s farmers to stand-by helpless, as newly born members of their flocks head skywards in a merciless pair of talons.
 

Emotive words I know, but as the WTE population grows, this thing is going to need constant and careful handling by the Scottish RSPB, Forestry Commission and the other responsible bodies in order to avoid the situation where tempers fly and guns go off.

To be continued.