Mull Eagle Hide now open for 2013



Our first visitors of 2013 ready to enjoy their trip to the
eagle hide at Glen Seilisdeir 


The wait is finally over and the Eagle Hide on Mull is now open for the 2013 season.

The first visitors arrived on Monday 25th March and were joined by John Clare, the RSPB Ranger and Cheryl Callow, the Seasonal Ranger for the island.

The weather has been kind to Mull over the last year and although it has been cold we have not had the weather that has hit the Isle of Arran and Ireland.

Bookings to visit the hide are a must and you can reserve your place by calling 01680 812556. The trips will  run daily from Easter weekend to October and last approximately 2 hours, subject to availability.

Costs are Adults £6 (including RSPB members), under 16’s £3. Trips to permanent Mull residents are free.

Both Fingal  and Iona the resident White Tailed Sea Eagles are ready and waiting to greet you at the nest.

We look forward to welcoming you to Mull.

Mull Eagle Watch a Five Star wildlife attraction

Our new site at Glen Seilisdeir has proved to be a wonderful venue with great views of our Sea Eagle nest, a very popular open-air viewing hide and plenty of happy visitors.

We were delighted to receive our Silver accreditation from the Green Tourism Business Scheme, and now the icing on the cake is that we have been awarded five stars from Visit Scotland, making us one of only two wildlife attractions in Scotland with five stars.

Today is my last day for this season, although as I live on Mull I'll be keeping an eye on our eagles during the winter months - it's impossible to stay away! Fingal, Iona, Buidhe and Gorm are doing well (as are Skye, Frisa and Sunda) and all the other Sea Eagles on Mull - it's been a record year. Other raptors on the island have done well too, thanks largely to the lovely summer we have enjoyed - for once Scotland's west coast has enjoyed better weather than the rest of the UK.

Once again, thanks to our visitors, community groups on Mull and Iona will benefit from grants given out from the Eagle Fund. Around 50% of the hide income is divided between good causes on the island, with the remainder helping to protect all the Sea Eagle nests on Mull, and keeping the hide running.

So I hope you enjoy the pictures, with a wonderful sequence of a Sea Eagle fishing courtesy of one of our visitors - Chris Stone - who kindly gave us permission to use his fantastic shots. Goodbye for now, and all being well I'll be back next spring. Do visit us and enjoy one of the most spectacular wildlife experiences in the UK.

 

With best wishes, Sue Dewar, White-tailed Sea Eagle Ranger, Mull Eagle Watch





Mull School children with their life-sized eagle nest and, after all their hard work, relaxing on the eagle bench



A great year for our white tailed eagles at Mull Eagle Watch



After a fantastic season the Eagle viewing hide at Glen Seilisdeir is now closed. Iona and Fingal successfully fledged two chicks, and the family can still be seen in the area.
However, there are still plenty of opportunities to view White Tailed Eagles around the island. The eagles don’t migrate and can be seen hunting for fish and seabirds over the lochs and sea, as well as looking for rabbits or hares inland. During the autumn the young birds tend to congregate together, sitting in trees or on the ground near to the coastline, whilst the adult birds will stay in and around their home territory.

Mull is not known as “Eagle Island” for nothing, and hosts one of the highest density populations of Golden Eagles in Europe, although these shy birds are more difficult to see as they keep well away from people.

If you are struggling to tell the difference between the two species, the adult White Tailed Eagle (the fourth largest eagle in the world) has a wingspan of 2.4 metres, stands about a metre high and weighs in at 7 kilos. It is a light brown colour with a paler head. When flying its broad wings are held in a flat profile and the adult’s white tail is short and wedge-shaped, leading to it being referred to as a “flying barn door”. The juvenile eagles are a dark, chocolate brown colour all over and don’t have the white tail initially, with those feathers moulting in over the next four or five years until it is ready to breed.

By comparison the Golden Eagle has a wingspan of around 2 metres and is a golden brown all over. It holds its wings in a shallow V-shape when flying, and is often seen flying high over the hills “hugging” the ridges whilst it searches for prey. Its tail is rectangular in shape and longer than the Sea Eagles. Juvenile Golden Eagles have white patches under its wings and a white rump at the top of its tail. They feed mostly on mammals and birds but are much more difficult to see than the White Tailed Eagles which are often seen perched in trees or on rocks.

If you see a large brown and cream raptor hanging in the sky (as if hovering) it will not be an eagle. Buzzards and Hen Harriers do this, but the eagles’ body weight is too high for their wings to support hovering.

The eagle hide will remain closed during the winter months whilst this year’s youngsters gradually moving away from their parents and, come December, the adult birds will start looking for nest sites or maybe adding to existing ones. Come February their courtship rituals will begin and by March they will be ready to start nesting. The birds are heavily protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and at this time they are very sensitive to disturbance.

Watch this space for information on where and when the 2013 hide will be opening or visit our web pages.

An empty nest, and all's well at Glen Seilisdeir



Adult Sea Eagle being mobbed by a Hooded Crow
(Photo: Sue Dewar)

 Firstly, my apologies for the gap between postings. The last couple of weeks has been hectic to say the least and I’ve barely been in the office.

The good news is that our second chick finally left the nest just over three weeks after his sister. To begin with the female chick kept returning to the nest as the adult birds were still feeding her brother there, and if the adults weren’t around she continued to bully him and snatch his food.

Thankfully, Iona was usually on hand to see
fair play, and eventually her daughter discovered that she could fly just as well as her parents and began to concentrate on following them and learning to hunt for herself. She has given us some great displays but the highlight was one day when both adults and the female flew together over the forest and up towards Ben More, getting higher and higher until the three of them were just dots in the sky. A cheeky Buzzard mobbed the young female relentlessly but she was having none of it and managed to shake him off.

Once the young male was allowed to eat his food in peace he really started to fill out, his tail and flight feathers grew down properly and he began wing-flapping exercises to strengthen his muscles ready for his first flight. Sadly we weren’t around when he finally took off, but the following morning we could hear him calling from somewhere in the forest and after a few days he proved that he too could fly when he appeared back on the nest. The adult birds occasionally bring food in and leave it there (and it doesn't take long for the chicks to find it), but most of the time they are trying to encourage both fledglings to follow them and learn how to hunt for themselves.

After the wonderful weather we have had on Mull this summer, yesterday we had torrential rain and strong winds and when I went to the hide I was relieved that the chicks had fledged as they would have been wet and miserable sitting up there exposed to the elements.

With the Scottish children back to school now I can now tell you that Bunessan Primary School (whose turn it was to name our chicks) decided to call the young birds after their school colours. So our young male is Gorm (pronounced Gorum) which is Gaelic for Blue, and the female is Buidhe (pronounced Bweeya), Gaelic for Yellow. Both chicks will stay in the area with Iona and Fingal for several weeks yet, perfecting their hunting and flying skills before eventually exploring the rest of the island and beyond. For a while they may enjoy the company of other young Sea Eagles fledged on Mull this year; in the autumn we often see groups of them perched together like a Sea Eagle youth club! Then they will begin their four-year journey of discovery, each year their tail feathers becoming whiter, their beaks turning yellow and their body and head feathers becoming paler, until at five years old they will look just like their parents. At that stage they will be searching for a mate and a territory of their own - who knows where they will end up?


This is our last week at Glen Seilisdeir - the hide closes on Friday 31st August as essential logging operations begin in the forest on Monday. It has all gone far too quickly, but it has been a real privilege to watch Iona and Fingal incubate their precious eggs through to hatching, and to watch Buidhe and Gorm grow from wobbly four-inch high, fluffy white chicks to full-grown magnificent Sea Eagles. Over the next few days I will gather together all the images that I (and others) have taken at the hide and post them on my final blog for this year.

Eagle Bonanza

What a day!  In all the years I've been watching eagles on Mull I've never known anything quite like it.  Yesterday we were treated to the most amazing views of our Sea Eagles - so spectacular one of our visitors was in tears.  If that wasn't enough, the local Golden Eagles put in an appearance too, and not to be outdone our resident Buzzard joined in with the display.

When I arrived meeting point the visitors waiting for the trip to begin had been watching not one, not two but three Golden Eagles - two adults and a juvenile - flying towards Glen Seilisdeir from Ben More, getting closer than I've seen them before and seemingly unperturbed by a group of very excited visitors watching them.

We started the trip and watched both Sea Eagle trips on the nest - our female still keeps returning and stealing food from her smaller sibling.  Half of the group had gone further along the track with the other ranger, and suddenly the walkie-talkie beeped and the message came through that both adult Sea Eagles were sitting in a tree.  My group hurried along to join the others and sure enough, there were Iona and Fingal sitting together on the same branch of a spruce tree.  Could it get any better?

A few minutes later, an adult Buzzard flew over doing just that - buzzing the eagles and getting frighteningly close.  At first the eagles seemed oblivious to the cheeky bird, but then Iona, probably remembering how the Buzzard had tried to steal food from her nest, took off from the tree in the direction of the nest.  And then ..... our female chick appeared from nowhere, powering through the sky straight towards the Buzzard.  This was just too much for Fingal who took off as well, and the three eagles began to circle together getting higher and higher (but not before flying about ten metres right over our heads).  Next to the adult birds the chick looks huge - even dwarfing her mother.  She has certainly been getting more than her share of the food!  We watched all the birds getting higher and higher until almost out of sight - our fledgling flying the highest of all, still chasing the Buzzard who eventually decided that discretion was the better part of valour and changed tack flying back to his or her territory.

We walked back to the hide to make a quick check on our remaining chick at the nest - still not ready to fledge although he has been making little sorties onto the branch at the edge of the nest.  After watching those gargantuan birds flying above us he looked so small in comparison, but I'm sure he'll soon catch up.

And the only disappointment of a wonderful day - while all the excitement was going on where was my camera - back in the van of course!

Good news at Loch Frisa

Frisa perched near the loch
Photo - Iain Erskine

Before I update you with news from the Glen Seilisdeir hide, some good news from Loch Frisa.  Those of you who have been following our Sea Eagles over the years will know that this year we moved from Loch Frisa to Glen Seilisdeir, leaving Skye and Frisa in peace after a busy time of forestry operations along the loch.   I'm delighted to tell you that Skye and Frisa have fledged a healthy chick this year.




Meanwhile, back at Glen Seilisdeir our fledged chick is still backwards and forwards to the nest, her sibling is not quite ready to go yet, and we have been having great views of the whole family. The adults seem to be bringing in mostly sea birds, fish and the occasional rabbit to feed the youngsters at the moment.  Our fledgling is still bullying her brother(?) but Iona is making sure that he gets plenty of food. 

I'll write another blog in the next day or two with any developments, but in the meantime here are three wonderful photos given to us by visiting photographer Chris Stone, showing the fishing technique of these magnificent birds.

Now you see her, now you don't!

Well, last week saw some interesting goings on at the Sea Eagle Nest. Previously I reported that our largest chick (thought to be a female) fledged from the nest leaving her smaller sibling to spend time putting on weight and growing down his(?) last flight feathers before fledging himself. All seemed to be normal with food being brought into the remaining chick by the parent birds, and it appeared to be putting on weight and growing apace.

And then, on Wednesday the older chick suddenly appeared back on the nest, much to the surprise of its sibling. Not only that but it stayed throughout Wednesday and Thursday. This is unusual behaviour, as once the birds fledge it is unusual for them to return to the nest. Our theory is that the older chick worked out that the adults were feeding its sibling, therefore there must be food at the nest. Sure enough, the first time the adult male came in with food for the smaller chick (a large, wriggling eel), the fledgling shoulder-barged it out of the way and grabbed the food for itself. As before, the small chick immediately retreated to the other side of the nest, once again intimidated by its sister. However, this time the fledgling failed, as in her haste to grab the prey it escaped and fell onto the side of the nest where it was grabbed again by the adult male who quickly swallowed it whole.

Soon after the female came in with what looked like a Fulmar and delivered it straight to the smaller chick whilst blocking the fledgling so that her brother could eat in peace. Both adults then remained at the nest for the rest of the day, mediating between their chicks. After I'd left the hide one of the adults must have brought in a rabbit, as the following morning the smaller chick was pulling at the remains of a rabbit leg; who knows which chick got the lion's share of that meal!

Fingal with food for a hungry young eagle
Photo by kind permission of Chris Stone

 The following day the whole scenario was repeated, with at least one adult around to see fair play, though later in the day they both took off, presumably to hunt for themselves, and although I stayed at the hide until gone 9pm neither of them returned to the nest. Both chicks were at the nest all day, but my colleague - FCS Wildlife Ranger Steve Irvine - reported that on Friday only the younger chick was there with an adult visiting the nest and then sitting higher in the tree keeping watch. Maybe the older chick got the message that trying to steal food from her sibling was not to be encouraged by her parents.


The chicks are now a little over twelve weeks old and it won't be too long before the second young eagle fledges. I can't wait to watch them learning to fly strongly and hunt for themselves - with a little help from their parents, of course.