My goodness, what a busy – but exciting – few weeks it’s been.
We’ve had primary school visits, beautiful weather, sensational views of the eagles… and of course, the ringing of the chicks!
At West Ardhu, the single chick was fitted with its leg rings on Tuesday June 7th.
As the team arrived, “Hope” [the female eagle] was away hunting and “Star” [the male eagle] was on babysitting duty.
It had been a quiet sort of day, but gloriously sunny and warm. As a result, Star was half asleep when the team approached his stand of conifers – it must have been quite a rude awakening for him?!
Once he realised what was happening, he lurched out of his tree and started to circle, calling, directly in front of the hide.
There are several pockets of plantation conifers left standing at West Ardhu. Each one has its own resident pair of buzzards, and these neighbours were quick to notice that something was amiss with their larger cousin.
The buzzard pair that live opposite the eagle nest were first on the scene, launching a very confident and persistent attack.
On the one hand, Star was trying his best to watch what was going on at his nest – but on the other, he was being mobbed and shunted by the buzzards, who simply wouldn’t leave him alone.
Star kept flashing his talons, but in his distracted state, this threat was having little effect on his antagonists.
I found myself looking around, wondering where his mate was. When push comes to shove, it is usually Hope that escorts any intruders off the premises: she doesn’t mess about when it comes to “chucking-out time”.
I knew that she had returned when I saw a large shadow streak across the escarpment to the left of the hide.
Looking up, Hope had her wings pulled in and was heading directly for her mate. When she arrived, the two of them circled so close together it seemed that they were almost touching.
The buzzards, knowing that discretion is the better part of valour, discreetly piped down and split the scene.
Meanwhile at the nest, ringers Rachel and Lewis were faced with a very indignant seven-week old eaglet.
In most cases, after an initial nod to bravery, eagle chicks resign themselves to their fate and sit quietly during the ringing process.
By all accounts, Star and Hope’s chick was “a feisty one”. This was corroborated by Rachel’s rather sore looking arms (!)
I couldn’t help but smile at this, thinking of his mother and her no-nonsense attitude.
Initial measurements suggest that this chick is a male – but we will need to wait for the DNA sexing results to know for sure.
Star and Hope stayed close to their nest throughout, and returned quickly once the ringers had moved away. By the following morning, normal service had resumed.
Elsewhere in Scotland, Lewis and Rachel have been busy fitting very different rings… They were married on Saturday!
Rachel is, in fact, my former senior keeper from the bird section at Bristol Zoo. It was an interesting combination of strange and lovely to bump into her at an eagle nest on Mull?!
I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing her and Lewis every happiness together.
If you would like to visit the eagles and learn more about their lives here on Mull, please contact: 01680 812 556
Stephanie Cope
Community Ranger for Mull Eagle Watch.
…
Now, as is often the case in life, we must go from happiness to sadness: there is also ringing news from our sister site at Tiroran Community Forest.
Though Fingal and Iona still have one very healthy chick, unfortunately, the smaller of the two was found dead on the nest.
You can find out more here:
Mull Eagle Watch 