3rd June - Loch na Keal, Ulva, Staffa at Sea, Mull, Scotland

 For the first time on this trip we awoke to overcast skies and some fine drizzle.  The forecast was still confident that the rain would move away by mid morning, but checking the radar app there was a considerable amount of red and yellow shading spread out over the Outer Hebrides and heading our way.

The plan for the day was the boat trip to Staffa and Lunga in the Treshnish Isles, this was due to leave at 11:30 am so plenty of time for the rain to clear.  Checking in with the company everything was ready to go, but we were warned it might be bumpy on the return journey.

Rather than sit around and wait for the scheduled departure we set off and stopped at the White-tailed Eagle site on Loch na Keal.  The drizzle became a little harder as we headed toward the loch from Salen and on getting out of the car it was still raining.  The White-tailed Eagle was sitting in the usual spot looking out across the loch.

A cropped version, not the best

With the rain I didn't expect it to fly and returned to the car to get out of the rain, but just to prove me wrong it then took off.

It then drew the attention of the local Hooded Crows, tiny in comparison with the eagle

The crows moved away once the eagle was out of their territory and the eagle turned back heading towards us.

It then turned and flew along the line of pine trees

Then turned and put on a great display out over us

Here are some interesting facts about the White-tailed Eagle in general:

-  White-tailed Eagles are closely related to Bald Eagles. They hold the same niche in the ecology of Eurasia that the Bald Eagle holds in North America.

-  On average the White-tailed Eagle has the largest wingspan of any Eagle.

-  The largest population of White-tailed Eagles in Europe is found along the coast of Norway.  This is where the birds for reintroduction into Western Scotland came from

-  A White-tailed Eagle’s territory can range as far as 70km. They’re almost always located around bodies of water.

-  White-tailed Eagles are the largest Eagles in Europe.

-  The White-tailed Eagles found in Europe are mainly sedentary, while the White-tailed Eagles found in Russia and northern Asia are migratory.   

As I have mentioned previously the white-tailed eagle is the UK’S largest bird of prey (and the fourth largest eagle in the world) with a pretty impressive 8ft wingspan. That’s not to say the golden eagle, whose wingspan is a little shorter at 7ft, is any less impressive of course. There are variations in size within each species, females typically being larger than the males, but as a rule of thumb the white-tailed eagle weighs in as the bigger of the two. Whilst we are talking about size it is worth mentioning the buzzard, who is often mistaken for an eagle because of it’s similar broad wing shape and ‘finger tips’. The buzzard, however, is much smaller, it’s wingspan is only around 4ft making for quite a sizeable difference. 

A golden eagle’s wings tend to be narrower than a White-tailed Eagle especially at the body, giving a more curved effect. You could say they look more elegant in comparison to the almost rectangular, straight edged wings of the white-tailed eagle. Perhaps that’s where it got the nickname ‘the flying barn door'. Be aware that both eagles do have prominent primary feathers which look like outstretched fingers on the wing tip, and that the wing shapes can also look quite similar depending on the angle of flight.

The rain was getting heavier now and the eagle turned and made its way back to the tree it had left earlier, gliding up to the perch on a flight where it hardly flapped its wings at all.

With it back in the tree we decided to move on, with the opportunity to take our time to scan the beach and shore line of the loch.  Before we set off though the clouds were gathering over the loch and above the summit of Ben More creating an extremely atmospheric landscape of sea, mountain and sky.

Looking back towards the west

A little further along the shore towards Ulva Ferry the clouds were also gathering over the cliffs at Gribun

And again looking down the loch to the west with Ben More on the north side.

These photographs go to show that what ever the weather the landscape of this wonderful island can produce spectacular scenes.

As we arrived at Ulva Ferry and pulled into the car park the rain became heavier and we were beginning to wonder what we were going to be in for on the sea trip.

Gradually the rain began to ease and with 30 minutes until we were due to set of the rain eased and we could get out of the car.  Waiting at the boat ramp we were treated t a very brief view of a male Hen Harrier hunting over the moorland at the back of the car park.  Frustratingly to short a view to even raise the camera and when I did it was for a Herring Gull.

A Black Guillemot  could be seen around the still waters close to the Pontoons.  The white patches on the wings were rather incomplete and damaged indicating that this might be an immature bird going through a moult.

Once off the boat headed around Ulva to the north, entering into Loch na Keal and then turning right and heading out to open water.  A White-tailed Eagle could be seen distantly perched in a tree, but it wasn't until we were well into a 55 minute journey to Staffa that we began to see some sea birds.  The first of note was a very smart adult Gannet, the first of the trip.

Up close a portrait of the Gannet.

As we approached Staffa the numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills increased on the sea with also several Kittiwakes and the first sightings of Puffin.  All these nest on Staffa.

Our skipper took us to the south western point of the island and we were able to get close to the island seeing the caves created by the sea eroding the basalt columns. 

Staffa is taken from the Old Norse word for stave or pillar island and is an island of the Inner Hebrides, just off the west coast of Mull. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.

The columns are made of basalt that formed from a molten lava flow over 60 million years ago.  At that time, Scotland and North America were being pulled apart by continental drift to form the north-eastern Atlantic. As the west coast of Scotland was stretched huge amounts of magma rose up through the cracks in the Earth's crust, erupting as lava and volcanic ash onto the surface. This volcanic activity lasted many hundreds of thousands of years and eventually created a 2.2 km plateau of lava and ash.  Similar basalt columns can be seen as part of the Giant's Causeway of the coast of Northern Ireland

Where there were ledges on the columns several Black Guillemots were settled.

This particular cave is known as Fingal's Cave and once we land it is possible to walk around and enter the cave.

We made our way around to the landing area, the boat brought alongside a small pier at the base of a set of steps that lead up to the top of the island or around across the basalt to Fingal's Cave.  Here you can see the shapes formed by this amazing rock.

We took the walk around the cliff to Fingal's Cave

The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern which Banks re-named 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by that of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The island became internationally renowned through Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave). He wrote that the inspiration for this piece of music came from a visit to the island in 1829, while he was standing in the cave listening to the roar of the waves.

At the entrance to the cave I nearly suffered a disaster, I felt my camera drop and realise that one of the grips holding the strap had worked loose, fortunately I always have a second to back up and this saved the camera.

Here the causeway heading out into the sea and under the water all the way to Northern Ireland.

We had 40 minutes on the island so were soon making our way back to the dock and boat.  As we awaited the remaining passengers to return it was an opportunity to take in the activity going on around us.  On a rock close by were a small group of Shag.  Others would join them, flying in from the sea and then turning away and coming into land into the wind, using this to allow them to slow their descent to the rock.  Despite this those joining did manage to annoy those present.

A Rock Pipit flitted around on the rocks close to the boat and a little further away a drake Eider sat, contrasting with the surrounding black of the basalt rock.

What I didn't realise until we pushed back from the dock was that there was also a female Eider present.

We went around the island once again and then headed west from Staffa towards Lunga, the largest island of the Treshnish Isles, an archipelago between Mull and the Outer Hebrides.  As we left we scattered more Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins.

As we moved closer to Lunga you could see the number of sea birds increase with more gulls than we had seen so far.  As I scanned the sea I noticed a darker bird with a rapid wing beat coming fast over the sea.  I knew at once this was a skua and I watched as it accelerated after what looked like a Herring Gull.  A chase ensued and I watched as both twisted and turned before the gull dropped its catch and the skua followed it down to the sea.  Size comparison and the bullish appearance of the Skua meant that this was a Great Skua, or Bonxie to give it it's Scottish name. 

The boat came closer and we were able to see the skua on the sea from the boat.

Then it flew and glided across the sea and joined another on the water.  I had heard that there was at least one pair nesting on Lunga and maybe these were that pair.

Then someone on the boat picks up a distant Manx Shearwater.

Which eventually allowed me to get a closer shot.

We were now approaching the island and the sea was full of auks and the calls of sea birds filled the air while Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins zipped past us as they flew to and fro from the rocks of the island and out to sea.

I then picked up another skua ahead of the boat and coming past us, much darker and slighter than the Great Skua with very angular wings and low and fast over the water.

This was an Arctic Skua, a dark phase bird.  It is slightly smaller than the Great Skua with elongated tail feathers.  It sped past us then turned and came back showing how fast these birds are.

The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus Stercorarius,. Of the seven the three smaller skuas Long-tailed, Pomarine and Arctic are known as jaegers in America.

The English word "skua" comes from the Faroese name for the great skua, skúgvur, with the island of Skúvoy renowned for its colony of that bird. The name "jaeger" is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning "hunter".   The genus name Stercorarius is Latin and means "of dung"; because the food disgorged by other birds when pursued by skuas was once thought to be excrement. 

Coming alongside the boat

Small for a skua, the Arctic Skua measures 16–19 inch in length, and 42–49 ich in wingspan. The tail streamer of the breeding adult accounts for about 2.8 inch of their length. There are three morphs.  Light-morph adults have a brown back, mainly white underparts and dark primary wing feathers with a white "flash". The head and neck are yellowish-white with a black cap and there is a pointed central tail projection. Dark-morph adults as this bird is are dark brown, and intermediate-phase birds are dark with somewhat paler underparts, head and neck. All morphs have the white wing flash, although this is very indistinct in this bird

Finally it headed out to see and could be seen chasing the guillemots as they flew towards the rocks from the open sea.  During the winter the Arctic Skuas feed 95% of the time by chasing and forcing other sea birds to give up any food they may have caught, this is known as Kleptoparasitism.  During the breeding season they will take rodents, chicks and eggs as well.

As we approached our landing place we came past the main area of the sea bird colony on Lunga.  Known as Dun Cruit (Harp Rock)  the seabirds could be heard but not seen as they were all on the other side of the rock.  Once on the island we would be able to walk to view the colony, that is if we get past the Puffins

With the tide high we embarked from the boat on to the rocks, which made for a difficult walk to the beach.  We were now on Lunga details of which will follow.