Out on the Sound

This morning's early mist rolled away to give us a glorious morning, with hardly a breath of wind to ruffle the waters of the Sound of Mull.

By ten o'clock the sun was bright in the sky and was soon joined up there by some high cirrus and....

....increasing numbers of 'planes, until the air space over Mull looked dangerously crowded.  Everyone seems to be rushing everywhere except the creel boat, at bottom left, and....

....a kayaker, who spent the night at Trevor's campsite and was out early on the water, along with....

....several shags - I'm still uncertain of my differentiation between shags and cormorants, but this one does have a shag-like crest.
 

Soon afterwards Nan MacLachlan contacted us to say that a pod of dolphins was playing in the bay between the pier and Mingary Castle, and shortly afterwards they came along the coast and gave us....

....a fine display of acrobatics off Ormsaigbeg.  It's very difficult to estimate how many were in the pod but it must have been at least thirty.

They moved off westwards along the coast, though one turned back and seemed intent on giving this cormorant a few worrying moments.

A little later a gaggle of over thirty whooper swans drifted in towards Kilchoan.  We hadn't seen them arrive so they may have landed far out on the Sound during the night.

As they came closer to the shore they began to form a circle, gently paddling round and round in the sunshine.