Puffin Day.

 I don't think I ever got over the day that Matt and I had many years ago, when, during our trip to Wales, we got up early and headed to Pembrokeshire to get close to the Puffins on Skomer. Matt was still a very keen young birder, and when we arrived to learn that the trips to Skomer were full for the day I could feel how upset he was too. We did still get on a boat that sailed around the island, so at least we still got to see Puffins, but not super close, which is what we had really wanted!!

One of the days on Mull I was looking forward to most was during the 2nd week, after we had moved to the southern end, was the trip to Lunga, to see those Puffins close-up that I had missed all those years ago with Matt. The boat trip also had the additional bonus of visiting the amazing Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa. So on the boat trip the music of Felix Mendelssohn kept going through my head. The Hebrides Overture that was written by Mendelssohn in 1830 after inspiration from visiting Staffa and seeing Fingal's Cave.

After several days of a stiff breeze, Lisa and I were not sure the boat would be running, but fortunately, on the day we had booked the trip, the breeze was slightly lighter. The sun was also shining well, so for the hour or so of the trip to get to Lunga, we were getting pretty excited. After mooring we followed others across the rocks, to climb up the steep section of the path to get to the area where we would see the Puffins and other Auks. On the way we saw Eider ducks with chicks, Oystercatchers, Wren and Wheatear families. With both of us being pretty fit, it wasn't long before we reached the top of the cliffs and started to see the Puffins. We only paused a short while as we wanted to get to the large rock at the end of the path that some of the other Auks were using, mainly Razorbills, but also several Guillemot. It really was amazing how close the birds came to us, with absolutely no fear of us at all.

Razorbill.

Guillemot.

Close-up of Razorbill.

Close-up of Guillemot.

However, it was really the Puffins that Lisa and I concentrated on the most, and after getting the photos of the Razorbills and Guillemot, we headed back to the main Puffin area. We had been told by Brian, our Otter guide, to do this, otherwise you could use all the 2 hours we had on the island photographing and watching the Puffins, and run out of time for the other birds. We are really glad we listened to him too as we could quite easily have got distracted by the lovely comical Puffins.

We certainly filled our boots when we got back to the Puffin area. We both tried to get some flight shots too. Pretty mixed results with these though. We were both also hoping to get shots of them flying in with beaks full of Sandeels, but we didn't get lucky there.

How could anybody not LOVE a Puffin!!

A Tufted Puffin??

Coming into land.

A ringed Puffin looking around a corner that isn't even there.

Puffin looking out to sea.

All to soon it was time to head back to the boat. The fun had not stopped though, as we were now off to Staffa. The geology of this island is totally amazing, and although I'm not particularly into geology, it really was something to admire, and you can see why so many people over the years have found inspiration from Staffa, and particularly, Fingal's Cave.

As the boat disembarked, nearly everyone went straight to the cave. We decided to do that after a walk away from the cave. We had lovely views of a pair of Great Skua and lots of Shag. When we got back towards the cave, everyone was leaving that area, so we actually had the place to ourselves. Perfect!! Well, it was just us and a handful of divers that were mostly under the water.

Fingal's Cave.

Selfie in front of Fingal's Cave.

Isle of Staffa.

We then had a 40 minute ride back to Mull, and as the wind was now behind us, the sailing was a lot less rough. As we approached the water between Iona and Mull, we were greeted by a small pod of Dolphin that performed well for us all. We were not in the best area of the boat to see them, but we did get a few views of them swimming fast and jumping out of the water very near.

When we got home, pretty tired from a full on day, we enjoyed dinner listening to the Hebrides Overture by Felix Mendelssohn  (several times).