How to record your bird sightings

Bird sightings are important, if we don't know what's on the island how can we conserve and protect? If you're a Mull Bird Club member, a Mull resident or one of our many visitors then please record your bird sightings and tell us about them!

Mull has many species of birds, most can be seen throughout the British Isles, but a few are very special and confined to this area of the West Coast of Scotland. These include the White-tailed Sea-eagle [Haliaeetus albicilla] and Corncrake [Crex crex]. However there are a few other species, very common throughout the British Isles, that are missing or very uncommon here on Mull. For instance; Moorhen [Gallinula chloropus], Coot [Fulica atra], Green Woodpecker [Picus viridis] and Magpie [Pica pica]. We still need to record these species too. Sightings of garden species like Blackbird [Turdus merula] and Robin [Erithacus rubecula] are important too and the Club now intends to keep records of these. Alan Spellman's website [see below] has full details of species status on the island.

A brief note on recording birds: Please include the place, date and time of day of your sightings when submitting your records. If you think it may be a very rare bird then full details including weather and lighting conditions, distance from the bird, your experience viewing the species and drawings showing salient field marks etc., will be needed.

The website of Alan Spellman [one of the founder members of the Mull Bird Club] has full details of the species recorded on Mull over the years and he lists all the important sightings there.

Please visit his website Mullbirds.com or click here to e-mail your sightings directly to him.

 

White-tailed Sea-eagles

Any reports of Sea Eagles on Mull will be much appreciated, especially of tagged immatures now that this year's [2006] yellow tagged chicks are on the move. For these sightings please contact Alan Spellman [as above] or click here to e-mail directly to David Sexton, the RSPB Officer for Mull.