Still waiting

Although it is way past time for Skye and Frisa's remaining egg to hatch, they are still incubating, taking it in turns to sit on the nest whatever the weather. There is an outside chance that they might have recycled and laid another egg, but this is so rare it is really clutching at straws. It is more likely that the eagles just aren't quite ready to give up yet, but sooner or later they will lose interest in the remaining egg that hasn't hatched, and go back to normal everyday life. I think this is beginning to happen now as the off-duty bird seems to be spending longer and longer away from the nest, rather than being on hand to relieve the bird that is sitting.

Once they have given up we will start to see more of them again, sitting in their favourite perch trees preening, and hunting for prey. Frisa has already started to moult - we have watched her pulling at a wing feather that was sticking up at a strange angle, but wasn't quite ready to come out.

Our Buzzard-cam is as popular as ever, with the female appearing to do most of the incubating. She calls when she has had enough and usually the male returns to take over, although yesterday he was hunting over the hill opposite the nest and ignored her calls before returning to the nest for five minutes. When he took off again his mate came back immediately, but was obviously not happy and took out her frustration on a twig in the nest.

The farmer who lives further along the track told us that he often sees Barn Owls hunting the fields close to the hide, so we have now put up a nest barrel in an isolated tree. We are planning to put a camera in the barrel next week, so hopefully we will be able to watch a Barn Owl family later in the season! Barn Owls do well on Mull - I monitor them and ring the chicks and in a year when there is a good population of Short-tailed Field Voles on the island we can have around 25 nesting pairs. There is plenty of excellent habitat, not too much fast traffic and usually a good food supply. Their only real problem is a lack of nest sites - Barn Owls like to nest in isolated hollow trees or old barns. There is at least one pair nesting in a cleft in a cliff face, but we also have a number of nestboxes and nest barrels fixed onto trees, and these are proving popular with the owls.

Next week is Mull and Iona Wildlife Week, so the island will be busy. We're expecting plenty of visitors to the hide and there are other events planned all around the island.

Healthy chicks and happy children

On Wednesday this week our chicks were ringed; we have two healthy, well-fed chicks at Loch Frisa. It was a very hot day and the team had their work cut out, but fortunately both Skye and Frisa were away hunting and this year's chicks were co-operative as usual. As yet we don't know the sex of the chicks, but blood samples were taken when the chicks were ringed and the results will give us the answer. As usual, food was left at the nest in case the adults were away for long, but we needn't have worried! Frisa soon came in, checked out her chicks and seemed very surprised to see a supply of halibut in the nest!

We have had visits from two schools this week. A group of 17 third year high school pupils came over to the island from Oban and had great views of the adult sea eagles and the chicks at the nest. We also talked about food chains and had great fun taking apart Barn Owl pellets and identifying the bones in them.

Today the children from Lochdonhead Primary School (here on the island) came to visit and had a lovely time watching Frisa who sat up in a nearby tree and gave us great views. The owl pellets were very popular again and the children ended up each with a little pot of bones to take back to school.

Our chicks are seven weeks old now and growing by the minute. With approximately five weeks to go until they fledge they have become more and more active giving our visitors great views.