Isle of Mull, Scotland: 6th-7th March 2011.

I have found it increasingly shocking that as a UK birder of nigh on thirty years, I have never made the effort to visit so many of the Scottish islands. So, at the grand age of 43, I have decided to address this beginning with a short visit to Mull.

Above: Red-necked Grebe, Sgeirean a' Phortaire, Laggan Bay, Loch Tuath - 6th March 2011. This was bird of the day in a Mull context, an Argyll description species. Always extremely distant, my ancient, trusty Camcorder managed to secure an identifiable record image.

Above & below: Great Northern Divers. The days total was what I regarded as a modest 30 in the waters of Loch Tuath, Loch Na Keal and Loch Scridain. Given the sheer size of the likes of Loch Tuath, this total was presumably the tip of the iceberg. 4 Red-throated Diver also seen: 1 Calgary, 1 Loch Na Keal, 2 Loch Scridain.

The weather deteriorated for the larger Raptors from midday. It would be a crime to visit Mull and not post any Eagle shots, no matter how poor they are. Above: 2 White-tailed Eagle, Below: Golden Eagle, one of three seen during the day.

Much scanning of shoreline eventually produced an Otter. This one showed brilliantly at Loch Beg mid-late afternoon, in albeit poor light and weather.

Above: An impressive set of teeth!

Below: The Otter location at Loch Beg.

Above & below: A few views of Loch Na Keal.

Above: A moving Memorial at a wonderful viewpoint overlooking part of Loch Tuath to a Woman named Susan Cameron, who tragically died during the 2003 Mull Rally.

Below: The three lochs of Loch Sguabain, Loch an Eilean & Loch Airde Glais. Gone 17:30, I had long given up on another Eagle in failing light and poor weather when an adult White-tailed appeared over the road and headed down this Glen presumably to roost.

Additonal selected sightings:

Achnadrish: 2 female Crossbill, inc 1 hat was perched on the road, but flew before I could bring the DSLR into play.

Loch Na Keal: 2 Slavonian Grebe, Peregrine.

Ballygown Bay, Loch Tuath: Greenshank.

Below: Back on the mainland the next morning, up to 20 Black Guillemots gave tremendously close views in Oban. Delightful, beautiful birds!

It's easy to see why so many people fall under the spell of Mull. A tremendous place both for wildlife and scenery. Having only begun to scratch the surface of the island's wildlife, i'll certainly be revisiting.

Local birding, Lancs: 1st-2nd March 2011

The same adult Med Gull has been present at Pleasington Playing Fields, Blackburn, for the past two mornings. Disturbance by dogwalkers and other Human traffic is absolutely off the scale at this site!! Yesterday at Brockholes NR LWT, adult Med Gull, Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid, and a couple of Ringed Plover which appear to be on territory on No1 Pit island. Nothing of note seen in the Fishmoor Res Gull roost this evening.

Local birding, Lancs: Iceland Gull, Med Gulls & FDxPO hybrid - 28th Feb 2011.

Nine hours pottering about locally started with an hour at Pleasington Old Hall Wood to see if Hawfinch still exist? No pain, no gain! Predictably no joy but I shall keep trying for the next month or two when possible. Following a fruitless first scan of the Black-headed Gull flock on Pleasington Playing Fields on the drive-in, a second check of Gulls present on the way back out along Tower Road was rewarded with three adult Mediterranean Gull. Always wanted to see a Med here, on the first ever local patch, Witton Country Park, where birding began for me back in the late 1970's!

Mass disturbance by multiple dog walkers saw the Gull flock disperse

Next stop was the local patch of the past 13 years, Brockholes Nature Reserve LWT for the next 4.5hrs. Three Med Gull were present on No1 Pit upon arrival, 4 Ringed Plover on No1 Pit island and the female Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid made a reappearance.

Above: 3 Med Gull.

Below: FDxPO hybrid

Brockholes NR LWT

Next was a drive over Belmont and Entwhistle for an unsuccessful check of some Clearfell wth fantasies of finding a Great Grey Shrike, a species I am long overdue to find in East Lancs!

Finally, the Fishmoor Res Gull roost came up trumps with an Iceland Gull in at 17:52, which looked to be a 2CY, but by this time the light had almost gone completely. With up to six Meds seen locally today, I couldn't find any at Fishmoor, although one must have roosted surely!

Above: Iceland Gull (arrowed!).

Roe Deer - Above: Brockholes. Below: Pleasington Crematorium.

Above and below: I have lazily relied on automatic DSLR settings for far too long and have started practising with exposure compensation on birds in flight against lead-grey skies with the newly acquired 7D.... With the Osprey passage only four or so weeks away, I've got to get my act together for when one flies through in similar conditions. Work in practice!

Local birding, Lancs: Iceland Gulls - 1st Feb 2011.

One juvenile Iceland Gull was present at Rishton Res upon my arrival just before c14:50, stood on the western bank amongst other Gulls. Just after 15:00, a second Iceland appeared on the water. With terrible sunlight in the face at the promenade and a south-westerly meaning all the Gulls were back-on, I had to run around the dam to get better light in order to age this second individual which proved to be another juv. Both were present for only ten minutes, with the second bird lingering until 15:45.

Presumably both returned to Whinney Hill Tip as they didn't come into roost at Fishmoor Res until 16:56 and 17:16 respectively.

The above poor record shot of the second individual is handheld to the 30xw eyepiece. A few days ago, for the first time in several months I dusted down the 30xW eyepiece for the Kowa 883 (I usually leave the zoom on), which I inadvertently left attached to the scope. As a result, I forgot the zoom at home and my digiscoping adapter only fits the zoom. The effort involved to obtain even the record shot above handheld bordered on the farcical! - As a result, i'm considering biting the bullet and purchasing the ridiculously overpriced Kowa DA-4 and DA-10 adapter so both eyepieces are covered!

Local birding: Common Redpolls & Iceland Gull - 31st Jan 2011.

Quality local birds began firstly with a call from Dave Bickerton who kindly invited me over to his garden at Petre Crescent, Rishton, where He and Mark Breaks had caught two Common (Mealy) Redpoll during a ringing session in DB's back garden (referred to hereafter as Rishton Bird Obs - RBO).

Above: 2x 1stw male Common Redpoll - Rishton Bird Observatory, 31st Jan 2011.

Above & below: 1stw male Common Redpoll (left) and 1stw Lesser Redpoll - RBO - 31st Jan 2011.

Dave Bickerton (centre, RBO President/Chariman/Owner) and Tony Disley (right) photograph the Common Redpolls. Much to my annoyance, I forgot to get some shots of the undertail coverts.

MkB extracts a Bullfinch: Rishton Bird Obs, 31st Jan 2011.

A good number of Gulls were noted from the moving car as I passed Rishton Reservoir enroute to RBO. Thankfully the majority were still present over an hour later. A juv Iceland Gull was noted on the first scan, probably the same bird as found by Steven Grimshaw c5 days previously at Whinney Hill Tip, and a different individual to the juv present a few weeks previously, being darker and more coarsely patterned than that bird.

Despite disturbance by the eternal scourge that is the dog walker (two in this case), the Iceland remained for c2 hours when it flew in the direction of Whinney Hill Tip at 14:22. Against the odds in foggy conditions, I briefly saw the bird at the Fishmoor Reservoir roost at 16:48.

Left-Right: Myself, Mark Breaks, Dave Bickerton, Geoff Turner & Steven Grimshaw - Rishton Reservoir, Lancs - 31st Jan 2011.