Well, when I woke up this morning with the sun streaming through the bedroom, I thought “won’t be long before the rain arrives”. How wrong I was. Today has been simply glorious – blue skies and warm sunshine, just what our chicks, and also our adult birds need. The adults haven’t been out much this week, protecting the chicks from the cold, the wind and the rain – and they have done a sterling job. Today, both Skye and Frisa were airborne again – a breathtaking sight to see them soaring in blue sky with warm sun on their wings. Our visitors to the Hide had fantastic views and were lucky enough to see Skye come in with a heron to feed the youngsters. It seems as if they were airborne for most of the day just enjoying being able to stretch their wings and not get wet. The chicks are growing at a rate of knots now and are causing great excitement amongst the visitors to the Hide.
Our sand martins are still busy building their nests, and we still have tadpoles in our puddles in the car park. The cuckoo is becoming a regular visitor to one of the fence posts in front of the hide – a first sighting for some of our visitors. The latest visitor to our feeders is a great spotted woodpecker, competing with the siskins for the peanuts. We have had great sightings of both the female and male hen harrier and on the Loch a pair of red throated divers as well as the common sandpipers, curlew and mergansers.
Wild Isles week has started on Mull and I hope the good weather lasts, not only for our visitors but for all our chicks that have hatched this year.
Below are photographs taken today just to prove how glorious it was. The first one is a view from below the Hide towards Ben More, our munro, the furthest right peak in the picture. (All photos Debby Thorne)
And I had to include a picture of Mum – Frisa basking in the sunshine. Sorry about the picture quality but she was a fair way off!
and finally, albeit a bit fuzzy, but if you look closely you can make out 2 small heads in the nest - the first public viewing of our chicks!
Great photo's Debbie, thank god the chicks are OK after last weeks scare when we thought we had lost one. Are there many Ospreys nesting on Mull as you seemed surprised to see one fishing on the loch.
Reply: Hi Glynis - we don't have any ospreys nesting on Mull - we occasionally get a juvenile or unpaired male hanging around so quite a treat to see one!
Today's excitement! an osprey fishing over the Loch - we couldnt believe our eyes! Stayed around for about 10 minutes much to the delight of our visitors. Great displays from Skye and Frisa today again, chicks feeding well and growing by the day. Debby