The Mull of Galloway in September and October is a fascinating place to be. The cliffs have fallen silent as the last of the breeding seabirds the fulmars, kittiwakes and their chicks have finally moved out to sea. Time then to turn our attentions to the heath where all sorts of strange sightings have been reported. Unusual birds like robins and great tits have been seen, popping in and out of the willow scrub, also chaffinches and sparrows. I can hear you saying "those aren't unusual birds - I see them every day in my garden"! Of course it's true that these are everyday birds for many people, but they're certainly a rarity at the Mull for most of the year. There have also been goldcrests and chiffchaffs hiding in the willow scrub today, waiting for better conditions for their journeys south.
Over the past few weeks we've had a couple of visits from Clive McKay, a visual migration expert and now Gavin Chambers,a local RSPB colleague, has just spent a few days at the Mull with us too. It has been fascinating, fun and educational to shadow some of their survey work - I've learnt a lot. Including being able to distinguish a flock of meadow pipits from a flock of linnets, just by seeing them fly and not hearing their calls. Linnets have a much stronger flight, meadow pipits seem to be having an uphill struggle as they fly.
Last Saturday I arrived at the Mull at 7am, just in time for daybreak. It was calm weather and you could have heard a pin drop - nothing was stirring. Just as dawn broke, a single meadow pipit let out a 'peep' which reassured me greatly as I was beginning to think that the wildlife had taken the weekend off. Soon afterwards, a flock of 15 ravens flew up above the road, circled over the reserve issuing croaks and grunts and then did a 'U' turn and returned north back down past the farm. This is their usual constitutional it seems and it kept me entertained until Clive appeared, ready to begin his visual migration survey.
Raven (Copyright Chris Gomersall, RSPB-Images)
Clive makes a point of visiting the Mull each September - it's one of his favourite places for surveying birds on migration. Multitudes of birds funnel through to the Mull, firstly from other parts of Scotland, followed later by birds from further afield such as Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia. This time last year Clive recorded spectacular numbers of skylarks flying south - a national record of 1400 on one of the mornings. This year the conditions weren't as favourable but even then he reported 200+ skylarks on the move. Visibility was the main problem; the birds like to see where they are going so murky, misty conditions will cause them to go to ground and await better weather. So over the weekend 13/14 September, there were large numbers of pied wagtails, a few white wagtails, masses of linnets and meadow pipits all grounded and "bottle-necked", as Clive put it, on the headland. Waiting for clearance from Air Traffic Control obviously. The full record from Clive's surveys can be found on the Trektellen website, along with some nice photographs. Just picking one additional special sighting from his records - he saw an osprey head out over the sea towards the Isle of Man.
As I mentioned at the start, the seabirds have now moved off the cliffs and there are occasional sightings of auks out on the sea. Today's guided walkers were treated to a view of a guillemot and a razorbill in their winter plumage bobbing about off Lagvag point. Close to the auks, we also caught sight of up to six porpoises. A guillemot chick has been audible but not seen for the last week or so, its begging call, sounding like "Feed me me, Feed me me" must be further out than it sounds.
Join us on Thursday's guided walk and see if we still have delayed flights backed up. 1pm at the visitor centre.