August 2024

Spending time with clients, especially repeat clients, usually means they become friends, and a couple who I have loved spending time with over the last few years, invited me to stay with them on their visit to the Morvern peninsular, and then over on Mull.

To my shame, I've not really spent a great deal of time exploring the mass of land closest to Mull. I normally drive across it, heading to Mull or going home after. And that's means I miss out on some wonderful sights and wildlife. We stayed at the Ardtornish Estate, in a cottage that overlooks a loch, and were treated to views of a pine marten on a couple of the nights.

On the final day, as we were packing the cars ready to relocate to Mull, I saw a splash in the loch, from the corner of my eye. My friends had seen otters in the loch during their stay, but they'd been elusive since I arrived.

The bubbles led me to the surfacing head of an otter, which proceeded to swim further out into the loch to hunt. After alerting my friends to the sighting, we watched from the garden of the cottage, as it fed out in the loch, which on this calm day, was almost like a mirror, reflecting the woodland on the other side.

Without any close shore to deal with larger prey, the otter swam over to an old branch that had clearly been in the loch some time, with seaweed trailing from it, to deal with an eel it had caught, and after finishing, I grabbed some images (with my Canon R7 coupled with the EF500mm and 2xTC) of the otter on the branch, with something of a reflection below.

It's a tranquil image that reminds me of the peaceful stay I enjoyed, and some of the amazing wildlife we saw during those few days. On that day alone, we managed to see three other otters before we had to leave, to get the ferry.

Happy times.