Drama at the nest

The Sea Eagle chicks are now seven weeks old and still growing rapidly. They are much more active on the nest now, pulling apart their own food when the adults are away although Iona still tries to feed them, tearing off tiny pieces of food as if they were still very small. Their diet has been very varied this week with fish, seabirds, pieces of a dead seal etc. and yesterday Fingal excelled himself by bringing in a mink. The chicks made short work of it but had to share it with their mother who is obviously very partial to mink.

We have yet to find out the sexes of the two chicks but, if I had to make a guess I would say that we have a male and a female as one chick is much bigger than the other and with only two days between hatching there would not usually be such a large size difference. The larger bird has already started standing on the edge of the nest and exercising its wings although it will be three to five weeks or more before it is ready to fledge. It's always a frightening time for those of us watching the nest when the chicks are wing-flapping as they stand right at the edge of the nest and it's a long way down if they slip.


Visitors at the viewing hide.  Photo Sue Dewar

Yesterday afternoon there was plenty of drama with the local Buzzard coming rather too close to the nest for comfort again. We can just hear the Buzzard chicks calling for food in the background, so the temptation for the adult to steal a piece of food from the eagle nest must have brought the adult Buzzard in.

It was not a good plan, though, as both adult eagles were at the nest and Fingal flew up, flipped over backwards with his talons in the air, and tried to grab the Buzzard. Although he didn't manage to catch it, the Buzzard got the message and took off with Fingal in hot pursuit. Our chicks are now much the same size as the Buzzard so we weren't worried that they were at risk, but the parent birds were outraged at the audacity of the smaller raptor trying to take the food that they had caught for their own chicks. It was an exciting time for our visitors and ourselves, but after half an hour everything had settled down and the nest returned to being a peaceful family roost.

Next week I am on annual leave so I can only imagine how much the chicks will have grown by the time I come back.





Peace reigns at Glen Seilisdeir

All is well at our Sea Eagle nest, and Iona and Fingal are the proud parents of two healthy chicks. They are almost two weeks old and are growing rapidly. At three days old we were already seeing wobbly, fluffy white heads bobbing about in the nest - now there are the first signs of grey showing through the white. The heads have stopped wobbling and are now expertly aiming for mum's beak - provided it is full of food!

To begin with Iona did all the brooding of her new family, with Fingal in charge of catching their food, but now both adults take turns. So far the chicks have been fed mainly on fish and seabirds such as Fulmars. To begin with the parent birds tore off tiny pieces of food to offer to their chicks, their enormous beaks bigger by far than the chicks' heads. With each day the morsels of food are getting larger and the chicks are getting greedier - it really isn't surprising that by eight to nine weeks they will be fully grown, and in ten weeks' time they will be ready to leave the nest.

As you can see by the photograph (taken for us by islander Alan Jack) the nest is very exposed, of necessity because with a wingspan of 2.4 metres the adults have to be able to spread their wings before launching themselves from the tree. You can just see Iona's pale head as she broods her charges on the nest.

To give you an idea of size the nest is about two metres across and just over half a metre deep, with a nest cup where the chicks lie and a built up surround so they are safe from falling. Over the last weekend the weather on Mull was atrocious and we were very concerned for the chicks' safety. Strong cold wind and heavy rain can be lethal for young birds and it was with some concern that we arrived on Monday to see if the nest was still intact with its precious contents. Thank goodness it was and as the weather warmed and the sun came out we were very relieved to see that all was well.

Last Friday we were visited by an assessor from the Green Tourism Business Scheme, and we are now awaiting our grading. All our power is provided from solar panels, and we strive to be eco-friendly in all that we do, so we hope that the assessor was impressed with what he saw.

The hide has been really busy, and everyone loves the new format. As the chicks grow we will see more and more activity at the nest, so if you are heading to Mull this summer do come to see us.