Our Eagles and other wildlife enjoy Mull's great Easter weather

The weather this Easter week has been fantastic on the Isle of Mull. Iona, the hen bird has been busy sitting on her eggs in the warmth of the sun incubating. Fingal the male has been busy too, making sure the nest is kept fresh with larch and melina (white hill) grass .

He has also been bringing in food for his mate, in the form of large fish and small mammals each day.
There have been several change overs which we have witness at the hide with Iona going off to have a break and feed herself.
Our visitors have been treated to a number of great sightings and yesterday afternoon they witnessed Fingal on the nest calling out for Iona. This was a new noise to many of the children and adults visiting the hide, who had never heard eagle conversation before.

We have also had the delight of a visiting sparrowhawk at our woodland hide, who boldly flies through the hide to the amazement of our visitors! Other visiting wildlife include a small robin at the hide who greets us on a daily basis, whilst we are keeping our eyes peeled for the Scottish Crossbill that is resident in these woods too but no sightings as yet.

Other birds of interest are the local buzzards ,who nest near by and the regular female hen harrier who cleared all of  the chaffinches off the feeders at the reception hide on Tuesday with ease. The male chaffinches are in abundance too on the spruce tree on the feeders in their bright red colour, just like Christmas baubles.

The weather for the week is looking very good so if you are planning a visit to Mull, don't forget to book a trip to the Eagle Hide.

Raptors, raptors everywhere!

What a day! With the Easter holidays upon us, trips to the hide are really busy this week and today both sessions were almost full. It has been a beautiful day - warm sunshine, blue skies with puffy white clouds, and Loch Frisa looking like a sheet of glass.

When we arrived with our visitors for the morning trip Frisa was obligingly sat in the favoured "off-duty" tree whilst Skye incubated their eggs, sitting well down in the nest cup to keep those precious eggs safe and warm. Everyone had a great view of Frisa through the scopes and this season we also have a fantastic live camera set up which we can pan round to home in on the birds and then show on our screen in the hide.

Frisa stayed put, preening and stretching until we had finished our introductory talk, then took off and after circling above the nest wood she turned and headed towards the hide. We all rushed outside and had wonderful views of her flying right above us before she began circling higher and higher using the thermals to help her. As if that wasn't enough a call went up to point out another bird to the south which proved to be a Golden Eagle. With both birds in the sky it was easy to see the difference between the two species - the huge broad wings of the Sea Eagle (hence the description coined by a crofter on Fair Isle many years ago - a "flying barn door"). The Sea Eagle's flat wing profile, large head with an enormous yellow beak and the short, wedge-shaped white tail contrasted with the shallow v-shaped profile of the Golden Eagle with its narrower wings. The Golden Eagle flies with its finger-shaped wing tips upturned. Its tail is longer and more square than the Sea Eagle, and its head is smaller and appears hunched back into its shoulders when it is flying.

As if this wasn't enough, a pair of Common Buzzards joined in the display. So many of our visitors ask us how to tell the difference between eagles and buzzards, and here we were with the perfect opportunity to see it - the buzzards smaller with a much more pronounced v-shaped profile, and thermaling in tighter circles above us.

Eventually all the birds drifted off in different directions but the display wasn't over. A male Sparrowhawk (which regularly comes in to try its luck with the birds on our feeders) began circling overhead, mobbed by Hooded Crows. The local Ravens flew over their nest crag, diving on each other and displaying.

And finally, our Buzzard-cam came into its own! Last year we had a camera set up viewing a Buzzard's nest. A pair of Buzzards added twigs and grass to it throughout the spring but then moved to another nest to rear their family. We decided to leave the camera in place this year and every morning more material has been added to the nest - but we never saw it happening. Then today we checked the monitor and there was the female, carefully weaving grass into the nest. It was fascinating to watch her on the big screen.

Our visitors were amazed; so much activity in the space of two hours! And our afternoon group were not disappointed either, with Frisa, the Buzzards and the Sparrowhawk putting in repeat performances. Raptorphile heaven!