Welcomed back with open wings…

Sula and Cuin, our eagle pair that hit stardom in 2014 have been extremely busy over the last few weeks. We were very excited to be working alongside this couple for 2015 but working with wildlife means we have to be flexible. A neighbouring eagle pair to Sula and Cuin’s territory has been ruffling some feathers. They’re now encroaching onto territory belonging to Sula and Cuin and our pair have been disputing this disagreement with the other birds. Things have settled down now as many eagle pairs have already begun incubating eggs. Sula and Cuin are likely to be incubating their own, but not on the nest they’ve used for the last few years which left Mull Eagle Watch with some last minute decision making.

Success only 40 years on

Brilliantly we’re only 30 years on from the first wild fledged white-tailed eagle chick and we now have almost 100 pairs across Scotland. This is an amazing reintroduction success story, demonstrating how conservation can work well. Back in 1970, only 40 years ago, the first white-tailed eagle eaglets were brought across seas from Norway to become pioneers in the UK. We’ve come such a long way since then with eagles expanding across the Hebrides and the Scottish West Coast to be joined by individual birds from the East Coast Scotland reintroduction. In 1918 we lost our last white-tailed eagle from the United Kingdom, but in less then 100 years since then they are back. Not only are they back but they’re thriving and are a huge asset to wildlife tourism as well as the ecosystem they’re an intrinsic part of.

Welcomed back with open wings…

Sula and Cuin’s nest site from last year is now playing host to another brilliant bird, the raven! Corvids like crows and ravens happily move into larger disused nests. As our eagles are nesting at another eyrie within their territory, ravens jumped at this highly desirable housing opportunity and are now incubating their own eggs. Ravens aren’t often a favored bird, especially by the farming community as they do regularly cause issues within lambing season but they are a fantastic species. They’re one of our most intelligent birds and can have a repertoire of 70 different vocalisations.
So Mull Eagle Watch will leave the ravens to it. We’ve been welcomed back to Tiroran in Glen Seilisdeir with open wings by Iona and Fingal and we look forward to working with them again of course.

Iona and Fingal

We’ve worked alongside this brilliant eagle pair for three years and watched as they’ve done a brilliant job of raising chicks. Fingal, the male bird was hatched in Norway back in 1997. Released into Wester Ross during the second reintroduction phase, Fingal helped forge the way for the white-tailed eagle’s expansion across Scotland. Iona, the female bird was a naturally raised chick from the Isle of Skye, hatching in 1998. Last year they successfully fledged one chick which you may remember Ulva Primary School naming Thistle. Thistle was ringed, but we’ve not yet had any definite sightings of her. She could still be around on the island or could be off traveling like Sona, our webcam chick from 2014. Sona has most recently been spotted in County Durham!

Booking for 2015

We’re now going to take bookings for Mull Eagle Watch this year and will be open from Monday 13th April. If you’d like to book in please contact the Craignure Information Centre on 01680 812556.
Trip times are slightly different to last year;
10am-12.30pm
1.30pm-3.30pm
Trips will last around two and a half hours, but visitors should feel free to leave at any time, often we’ll have seen lots of action within the first two hours!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re all looking forward to visiting again; it’ll be great to see Iona and Fingal in a familiar location. Rachel 🙂