ISLE OF MULL WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY 

Isle of Mull Wildlife Photography Holiday

It’s been a busy time of late in the world of Vivid, and I apologise for the lack of blogging. Hopefully over the next few weeks we’ll have a ‘blogfest’ and be back on track!

We’ve been working on a lot of different Vivid projects but thought I’d do a quick blog from my recent trip up to the Isle of Mull. My friend and I went with my mate Pete Jones to try and photograph some of the local wildlife.

I’d visited Mull about 13 years ago with my then girlfriend, now wife Dawn and it’s somewhere I always wanted to return to to try and photograph some of the wildlife, especially the White-tailed Sea Eagle, which is one of the rarest and certainly most impressive birds you’ll see in the UK…..if you’re lucky.

Me with my big lens!

It is Remote

After about a 9 hour journey we arrived at where we were staying, in a cottage on the Ross of Mull, 5 minutes walk from where the above photograph was taken. We were in the middle of nowhere but with great views and hopefully great wildlife photography opportunities close by.

So lets cut to the chase and show you a small selection of my favourite photographs from my week.

Common Sandpiper

Curlew, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Mull’s Wild Flowers

Mull has a great selections of wild flowers, and numerous species of Orchid’s can be found at this time of year.

Heath Spotted Orchid by Graham Ella

Fragrant Orchid, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

My Favourite Finds

The two main species that I really wanted to try and see and if possible photograph were Otter, which I had previously photographed on the Shetland Isles a couple of years ago, but only managed a few frames, and to be honest wasn’t completely happy with my results. The second, and top of the list was White-tailed Sea Eagle….. so here you go.

Otter, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

White-tailed Sea Eagle, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

White-tailed Sea Eagle, Loch Na Keal by Graham Ella

Landscape Photography

When not searching for, and photographing the wildlife, there’s time for a little bit of landscape photography too;

Pennyghael Shore, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Sunset over Scoor, by Graham Ella

View from the headland by Graham Ella

For those of you with young kids, like me, then you may not know where Mull is but there’s a pretty good chance your kids will recognise the main town of Tobermory or as they’ll know it Balamory. When I got home, all excited about the wildlife I’d photographed, my 3 year old’s eyes lit up with excitement when he saw….

Tobermory….I mean Balamory by Graham Ella

Enough of Penny Pocket and Archie the Inventor… back to the wildlife. Not a brilliant photo but you’ve seen Eagles and Otter so here’s the Hare.

Mountain Hare by Graham Ella

Ticked off

In the middle of the week, I managed to take a photo of a creature that I hadn’t planned on photographing, we actually became quite close for a day or so… as I found it eating me!! A Tick. Being from Manchester, I thought my days were numbered, my life flashed before me. Apparently they are pretty common, and the Nurse laughed that my cure for the Tick was to cover it in Savlon and stick a plaster on it! Isn’t that how we sort out all accidents?

Tick by Graham Ella

Yes, I know it makes me cringe when I look at it too!! It was my leg after all. Typical photographer though, make sure you get a photograph before thinking about how to get it out!

Lapwing by Graham Ella

Meadow Pipit, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Snipe, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

One of the birds I’ve never seen and certainly wasn’t expecting to see was a Corncrake, so I couldn’t believe my luck to find this male ‘calling’ in the grass. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time! Again not the closest of views but as I said seeing one of these birds in the open is pretty rare.

Corncrake, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Final Thoughts

Mull is such a great place, and I’d recommend it to anyone that wants peace and quiet, great wildlife and friendly people. A few shots to finish off and thanks for looking at my ‘non work’ blog.

Swallow by Graham Ella

Juvenile Wheatear by Graham Ella

A final shot of the moment the Sea Eagle swooped and took a fish.

White-tailed Sea Eagle by Graham Ella

Now back normality. If you would like to find out more about more about Vivid’s commercial photography offering, please visit Vivid’s corporate photography page.