Otters, Puffins and Seals Wild

This is Mull, the island I call home.

As a wildlife cameraman I've been lucky enough to work

in some of the world's most spectacular places.

For me, Mull is the best place on the planet.

Actually, all the sea lochs are great...actually, pretty much

all the coastline around Mull is great for otters

but with the road being so close to the shore

you can cover much more ground.

At least at this time of day, with an incoming tide

you've got a good chance of seeing otters. Just keep your eyes peeled.

There's some cars stopped up ahead here...looking at something.

Whoa! Whoa!

There's an otter on the rock there.

Oh, wow! Fantastic! There's two otters, they've got a huge eel!

When we first saw it, there were two otters on the rock

and a huge conger eel, about four feet long,

but one of the otters has gone back into the sea

and there's one back up on the rock, and it just seems to be...

munching on something.

You don't get much closer to otters than this, really.

Otters haven't been hunted on Mull, or trapped,

for quite a number of years. I am sure there's been things that have gone one,

but they don't really have any predators.

Otters along this stretch of road see cars and people all the time

so it's nothing unusual.

And every time they are seen, people are going to stop and watch them,

so I suppose over the years they just get more and more tame.

This rock that it was feeding on is completely under the water now,

the tide's on its way in, so I'm just going to move down,

hopefully try and get a closer shot of it.

Move off.

We're having phenomenal luck today, there's two otters playing about

on that little patch of seaweed out there.

It's a different pair of otters, not quite the close-up action

I was hoping for. Otters never like to make it too easy.

They seem to rooting about in the seaweed.

I don't know what they're up to.

Probably looking for crabs, or eels, or something like that.

I've seen, pretty much in every country I've ever been to,

I've seen otters, and they are one of my favourites,

but they're notoriously difficult to find.

Great to come across like that.

That's them back onto the rock again.

Actually, there's three! Three of them.

Wow!

They've already slid into the water.

That was magic!

Do you see? Fallow deer.

There's a smaller one just tucked into the grass

and its head's just popped up,

but it would be nice if it stood up,

because I can't really get a clear view from here.

I think it's a mother with a fawn, but the mother's pure white,

or it's a fallow deer that's hanging out with a goat, or a sheep.

Very strange!

It is a white one!

An albino fallow deer. Never seen one on them before.

Fallow deer are not indigenous, they were introduced here,

and I knew that there used to be some in the woodland here.

I hadn't seen them for years. It's nice to come across them like this.

This is Tobermory, my home town, on the Isle of Mull.

Today I'm off to explore some of the neighbouring islands,

including the Treshnish Islands.

You can guarantee I'm going to see puffins and seals,

and along the way I'm going to keep my eyes peeled

for whales and dolphins.

It was fine when we came out of the bay,

but just as we came round the point here, it's become more choppy,

so we could be in for rough weather. Hope it stays fine, you never know.

Best to be prepared.

If you were to come here before early spring

it's a fairly desolate place. The only time it's busy

is when it's the nesting season, and the puffins arrive early spring

and they're here throughout the summer,

then for the rest of the year they float about

out in the Atlantic somewhere, they never ever come ashore.

The island of Luing is an old favourite of mine, I first came here when I was ten.

Puffins can live for up to 25 years

and they use the exact same burrow, year after year,

so the birds up here could well be the same ones

I saw on my very first visit.

There's puffins nesting along the edge of the cliff here

I'll get the camera out and try and work my way closer.

They don't seem too bothered, but I don't want to scare them off.

That's what I love about Puffins, they're just amazingly trusting.

I'm only about eight or nine feet away from them

and they just don't seem to bother at all.

There's one there that's just coming out of its burrow.

The burrows are about two or three feet deep,

and they just lay a solitary egg.

And when the chick hatches...

..when the chick hatches it stays in there until it's nearing maturity

and it will only come out at night time, and get to know the area

so that in five years' time when it comes back to breed

it knows where to come.

I'm going to try and crawl a bit closer.

Got a bit of a show-off here.

PUFFIN HONKS

That's one just calling, it must be in its burrow,

That honking noise is the sound they make.

You don't have to hang around for too long

to see that puffins are expert fisherman.

Around Luing, sand eels are the most common catch.

I think this is actually the closest I've ever been.

You can almost touch that one that's sitting there.

I'd love to stay here all day.

True to form, Scotland's weather has taken a turn for the worse.

This makes my next stop even more spectacular.

Welcome to the Island of Staffa.

The geology here is incredible, and it's here in Fingal's Cave

Mendelssohn was inspired by the noise of the booming sea

to write his Hebridean Overture. I can see why.

This is definitely one of my favourite, favourite places.

The whole island is like a huge sculpture.

In the cave here is the best example of the basalt columns.

You see it all over the island.

But here it's most impressive.

Molten lava's been forced up through the earth,

and when it comes in contact with the water

it kind of crystallises and you see these hexagonal shapes.

It's just a phenomenal place.

With the weather clearing up, it's OK to head back out to sea.

That's us just approaching Coll now. Going up around the north end

where we'll hopefully going to see the grey seals and the common seals,

and hopefully some whales and dolphins, if they're about.

Realising how difficult it is to spot whales, you basically,

you're looking for the shape of its dorsal fin and its back

as it comes out of the water, but if you sit here for long enough

you think you've seen about 100 whales,

and it's nothing but a wave.

I think I'll settle for the easier option, the seals of Coll.

There's seals bobbing up on both sides here,

look over this side and they move over, then they'll go back this way,

and they're not making sense in the slightest.

Four common seals just hauled out on the rocks here.

It's time to get ashore, it should all be easier on dry land.

There's about 15 or 20 in the water here,

so we'll try and get down to the shore and get some shots of them.

Most are common seals out here, but I did see a couple of grey seals.

I think the common seals are more nosy,

they're coming in much more often, look at this one...

SEALS BARKING

I'm going to try something a little bit different.

When it's safe,

I always want to get as near as I can to what I'm filming.

Come on, seal, pop your head up!

Sometimes I'm much nearer than I realise.

On the way home we kept a lookout for whales.

And with a much calmer sea, we got lucky.

The briefest glimpse of a ten-foot minke whale.

Wow!

Short, but sweet!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd