Searching for Otters on Loch Don, Isle of Mull
I am on the beautiful Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland, and we have anchored in Loch Don on the Southeast side of the island. This is not a spot we have visited before, but as the Isle of Mull is famous for its otters, and this is quite a secluded location, odds are, there are some here (hopefully).
We are anchored here for only one night so to make the most of my time here, I head out pretty much straight away to walk the shoreline with my camera, and cross everything that I can find some of these elusive creatures.
As soon as I have been dropped off to shore by Tim, there are Guls and Oystercatchers, one of which flies right at me and I quickly capture some images of it that I am really happy with.
I then start my walk properly, and out towards the headland across the rocky shoreline. Using my binoculars to look ahead and scan amongst the rocks and sea weed, looking for the otters. I see another Oystercatcher posing on a rock, with some mountains off in the distance and then have a run in with some seals, I am not sure who is more shocked, me or the seals as we both jumped! They made their way into the water, and I did manage a couple of snapshots, but not really keeper images. Still no otter sightings yet, but I still have a way to go, until I get to the headland.
We pass some more Oystercatchers, before I have to make my way inland a bit, to manoeuvre over a deer fence. It was my first time ever climbing a style over one of these fences, and it is fair to say, you go a long way up!
Once back on dry land and some otter scanning (still no sightings yet) I continue my walk. I have a lovely encounter with some Meadow Pipits and mange to capture my favourite images of them on this Scottish trip we have been on.
As I continue my way along the shore, I find where the all the geese are currently hanging out, as thus far, I have only found their poop everywhere! There is also a herd of cows further along, down by the shore with some calves, which I don’t really want to try my chances with.
I walk a bit further and there are a few Red Breasted Merganser (had to do a post walk google of them) swimming close to the shore, they were still pretty far away so, while the images are nice for a documenting purpose, they are not keeper images. I then decided against continuing further as I would have to negotiate with the cows, and I’d rather not be the centre of their attention, so turn back and start making my way back to the boat.
On the way back, there is a Grey Heron out towards the waterline, looking for food. It is too far away for any decent images, but I take a video and enjoy my time watching do its thing.
There is not much else to report on my back, I had a brief encounter with a Common Ringed Plover, and then the rain started so, I called my dial a ride to come and collect me from the shore, with the aim of searching for otters again in the morning.
The following day, I ended up getting to shore much later than I had planned, due to some passing rain showers. I only have an hour and a half before I need to be back at the boat to leave, so with my alarm set to 45 minutes, I head off in the opposite direction from yesterday.
The tide is out, pushing what little animal life there is out this morning, quite far from the safety of the rocky and non seaweedy part of the shore where I am walking.
While I did see a few cloven footprints, I was unable to find who left them, I was hoping for deer as it only looked like one or two animals had left them, but it could just as likely have been an adventurous sheep! I have to negotiate my way around the loch due to the low tide levels, and not wanting to get stuck in the mud which is prevalent in the flats around the water level.
I had a very fleeting encounter with a common sandpiper, which was nice as I didn’t see one on my outing yesterday, but even though I am searching ahead and scanning the shoreline constantly for otters, I see nothing. I continue a bit further to a wall/fence which marks the end of my adventure this morning as I need to start heading back to the boat.
It was a bit disappointing to not see any otters while I was here on Mull, but that is the way of wildlife photography, you can’t magic up animals for your own convenience! I know I will get a chance to see and photograph these elusive animals in the future (especially as I have already booked a photography trip to Mull in 2025 to specifically see them!), and I still had a lovely time getting out and exploring this stunning loch.