Photographing Mull’s White Tailed Eagles.

While I have been on the Isle of Mull for a few days at this point, the first adventure I want to share with you all is from my trip out will Mull Charters to see the White Tailed Eagles.

The weather since arriving on Mull has been patchy at best. We have had some mega downpours and some incredibly strong winds, so we were very lucky that there was a good weather window where we could go out with the folks over at Mull Charters. We were scheduled to leave the pontoon at 9 am, an hour earlier than when they usually go out, due to some incoming winds.

As I knew we’d be out in the elements, and experience on our own boat has taught me, that I will be cold, so I decided to wear everything! Base layer of thermals, waterproof socks, my usual clothes, down jacket, snow trousers, waterproof jacket and to top it off, my windproof and waterproof beanie (as I didn’t want to run the risk of my cap being caught in the wind and lost to the loch).

The weather as we left our accommodation was just beautiful, the sun was out, the winds were calm, and we ran into a young red deer family en route. We had an hour’s drive to get to Ulva Ferry, where Mull Charters are based, and by the time we got there, the clouds were gathering, and the winds were starting to pick up.

We boarded the Lady Jayne and introduced to the team, Alex, Blair and the fabulous ship’s dog, Monty. While we motored over to our first location, Blair gave us the run-down on how our time on the boat would go, and where we would be seeing the eagles.

For this trip, I had my camera in manual mode, with the aperture set at f6.3 (which is wide open on my 200-600mm lens), I was also in auto ISO, so I didn’t need to worry about my exposure too much, and I was adjusting the shutter speed to fit the situation. (for the most part this was just set at 1/1600s, but after reviewing the images, I think I should have had this higher as there is some motion blur in the wings when the eagles are rising up after they have their fish).

The eagles at our first location saw us coming and made their way over to the boat, it was amazing to see these birds so close for the first time. They are our largest bird here in the UK and the 4th largest eagle worldwide, with an average wing span of 1.8-2.4 m.

Once we were in position, Blair threw in the first fish for the eagles, the speed at which these birds can dive is very impressive and at times, it was a bit of a struggle to keep them in the right part of the frame while taking my photos.

Once the first eagle had its fish, the next one was thrown in and picked up by the second eagle in the space of about 20 seconds of each other.

This pair were raising a chick on an island out in the loch, and so came back very quick after dropping off their catch with the young. Once again the fish were thrown in, and we were able to get our images. I made sure to keep my finger of the shutter, to increase my chances of getting that killer shot. I did have a few focusing issues, where the focus was slightly out, but for the most part, the Sony A7iv and my 200-600 mm lens were a great combination for this.

After these first few dives, we moved off to our next spot. As we made our way there, we encountered a sizeable pod of common dolphins, frolicking in the loch. This was amazing to see, as they got pretty close to the boat and were launching themselves all over the place. However, this proved to be particularly challenging to photography. Not only did you need to try and follow them and guess where they’d pop up next, getting the focus right was quite tough, leading to not many images from me. As I was struggling with this, I chose to be present in the moment and enjoy being able to see these dolphins so close up, rather than get frustrated over missed images.

After our dolphin interlude, we headed on to the next eagle spot. I struggled tracking this one, and keeping it in the frame, but I am very happy with the images I got as it made its way past the distant cliffs.

We then had one more eagle encounter of the trip, this time, everything aligned, the sun just peaked through the clouds and gave us some much-needed light (I feel that, while I like the other images, they are lacking that sparkle, due to the flat and dull lighting conditions we had with them). I tracked this last eagle as it quickly changed direction and headed in for its fish, this set of images is definitely my favourite from our time with Mull Charters, and it will be some of these that feature in my 2025 book of the year.

After this encounter, we headed to some shelter for some tea and biscuits (much needed with the cold winds), before heading back into the harbour before the big winds came in (they and the swell in the loch had been growing the whole time we were out).

We did meet up with our dolphin pod again, and I managed to get 1 snapshot – there was a lot of cropping involved, and while it is in no way perfect, or really a keeper (I wouldn’t have edited it if I wasn’t making the videos or writing this blog), it has given me something to aim for in the future.

In all, I had a brilliant time out with Mull Charters and the other photographers on our little trip, and this would definitely be an experience I would like to do again if I get the chance to.