Great to be back

Isle of Mull, Scotland, June 2025

It was great to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. The eight person cottage in Salen is a fantastic base for exploring the island and comes at a great prices. With the group sharing the job of feeding everyone it makes for a great social aspect to the trip and one of the reasons it's such an enjoyable week.

As usual the weather was a challenge for the first few days but brightened up towards the end of the week and provided some great photo opportunities.

Three main things attract many photographers to Mull, the White Tailed Eagles (WTSE), Otters and the Puffins. Of course there is an abundance of other wildlife and the chance of seeing the Golden Eagles (usually at a great distance). 

WTSE

The White Tailed Sea Eagle, often referred to as the flying barn door due to the impressive 2.4 m wingspan. On Mull we head out on the Lady Jayne (courtesy of Mull Charters) in search of these impressive birds of prey. The first trip this year was a challenge due to the fog/mist and the second was a little to brigtht at times. That said each trip offered something unique and as usual the Eagles did not disappoint. 

The one to the right was very confused as it rose from a dive to find it had missed the catch!

Otters

Looking for Otters takes up a significant amount of the time we spend on Mull, getting one or two good chances to photograph theme amazing animals requires a lot of hours waiting and searching. This year I count myself very lucky as we got to spend time with 12 different Otters over the course of the week. Only three of those sighting produced opportunities for good photography, it was a pleasure to watch the others through the binoculars as they went about their business.

One morning (about 6am) myself and Geoff did get very lucky to find the guy you can see opposite, chilling on the seaweed. He (she?) was super relaxed and spent time preening, sleeping and generally having a rest without a care that we lying in the seaweed watching. Eventually slipping back into the loch to go find some food.

Puffins

Heading out to the Island of Lunga to see the Puffins is always a highlight of the trip. This year the weather was looking good and the seas relatively calm. Photographing the puffins coming into land (hopefully with sand eels) is always a challenge and offers a great chance to practice some of the more technical side of wildlife photography. 

Overall is was a fantastic week, photographing & watching the varied wildlife that mull has to offer. I cannot wait to make it back in 2026, we are going a month earlier in May so should be a little different. Massive thanks to everyone for being great company.