3^rd November 2018

My goodness, it has been the most challenging season for Mull Eagle Watch! We’ve had some great highs and way too many lows but still, we managed to salvage the season and end with some fantastic and well-deserved news. Here is a summary of the key events that occurred this summer.

The season got off to a fantastic start at our brilliant new host site, Craignure Golf Course, where we watched the long-established white-tailed eagle pair, Scalla and Anna, beginning their breeding season. Sadly, within a week of Anna laying her eggs – and within a week of us starting our tours – the nesting attempt had failed. We think the cause was another adult bird whose interference may be to blame for their eggs breaking. The pair remained around the golf course for the next month, giving our visitors fantastic views, but ultimately decided to explore further afield.

Anna landing in the nest at Craignure Golf Club

With no sea eagles to see, we turned our attention to the coast and were pleasantly surprised by the rewarding sights of distant golden and white-tailed eagles, otters and seals in the Sound of Mull, common and Arctic terns and a great variety of waders including curlew, ringed plover, turnstone, dunlin, common sandpiper and sanderling.

Common seals

Ringed plover on the beach

Arctic tern at Craignure Golf Course

Tern chick at Craignure Golf Course

We also decided to return to our usual location at Tiroran Community Forest to watch our old friends Fingal and Iona. The view of their nest this year was unbelievable! It was relatively close and very visible, giving our visitors unbeatable views of the parents and chick at all times. But disaster struck again; just two weeks into our tours here, the chick passed away. The post-mortem revealed that it had died from a chest infection. A huge blow to the project but even more heart-breaking for the eagles.

Iona and chick on the nest in Tiroran Community Forest

Just as we felt well and truly defeated, the opportunity arose to return to West Ardhu to run tours and we jumped at the chance! Parents, Hope and Star, had two adult-sized healthy eaglets when we arrived and visitors flocked to the site to see them. Here, we saw lots of young kestrels whizzing around, the occasional sparrowhawk, the very rare golden eagle and of course, the white-tail family flying in and out and all around to the delight of our visitors.

Hope flying past at West Ardhu

Hope and Star’s male eaglet

So despite the challenges this summer has thrown at us – due in large part to the high nest faliure rate of the eagles (9/22 failed) -, we seem to have unbelievably pulled through and even ended on a surprising high; amazingly last night, we took home the Working Together for Tourism award from the Highland and Islands Tourism Awards. A real testament to the success of this partnership and how the partners and other organisations can pull together. And not forgetting the 5* Visit Scotland rating we were awarded based on an eagle-less tour at Craignure Golf Course!

RSPB Mull Officer, Dave, collecting the HITA award!

Thank you to all who supported us this season whether that be by attending a tour, donating to us or just reading this blog and our other social media posts. And thank you to all the partners: Mull and Iona Community Trust, Police Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland and the RSPB and also to Craignure Golf Club, South West Mull and Iona Development (Tiroran) and North West Mull Community Woodland Company (West Ardhu) for hosting us.

We hope to be back next year, so see you then!

Meryl

RSPB Community Information and Tourism Officer

15th October 2018

In 2010, MEW watched as sea eagle pair, Fingal and Iona, raised a chick. The female was named Shelly after Glen Seilisdeir, the valley in which the birds reside on the Isle of Mull.

Shelly as a chick in 2010 having her leg rings and satellite tag fitted ( Forestry Commission Scotland)

Shelly was fitted with a satellite tag which was designed to track her movements. Disappointingly, after only three years, the tag stopped transmitting on the Isle of Lewis. Luckily though, it was recovered with no eagle attached so it was hoped she was still alive.

Last year, RSPB Mull Officer, Dave Sexton, received an exciting email from a birder named Iain who had been photographing eagles on a loch up in Sutherland. In one photo, the bird’s leg rings could quite clearly be read as C9 39.

Heart-racing, knowing that the blue/silver colour combination of the ring was worn by birds hatched in 2010, Dave searched the database of leg rings and found it was her! He had finally found the answer to her disappearance all those years ago. As it turns out, Shelly had been breeding at this location since 2015 and had raised four chicks with her partner who was from Lewis, the Isle where Shelly had lost her tag.

This Summer, Iain kindly gave us an update on Shelly and her family. She has hatched another two chicks this year and the whole family can be seen in the photo below. Thank you to Iain Paterson for this revelation, the update and the fantastic photos.

Sea eagle Shelly (C9 39) as an adult in Sutherland

Shelly’s mate (C9 23) from the Isle of Lewis

Male in the nest with the two large chicks (one’s head only just visible below male’s left wing) and Shelly coming in to land

Tours at West Ardhu are still running throughout September. To book on a tour, please call 01680 812 556. Of course these are wild birds so please bear in mind that you may not get as lucky as this!

Thanks for reading,

Meryl

RSPB Community Information and Tourism Officer

2nd July 2018

Sadly, on Thursday 14^th June, the Tiroran chick was confirmed dead. It had only been ringed on the Monday and the team remarked at how placid it had been when being handled.

The Tiroran chick being ringed

Looking back, that wasn’t a good sign. Cian had been watching the chick all week with visitors and had seen it feeding well on Monday and Tuesday but hunkered down on the Wednesday during storm Hector. By Thursday afternoon, it was apparent to him that the chick was lifeless.

The ringing team were visiting their last nest of the day when they were informed. Instead of clocking off at 6pm, they journeyed back to Tiroran to retrieve the body.

It was sent off for post-mortem and the results suggested that it had a birth defect or a chest infection and it is likely that the storm was the final straw. It also had no food in its crop (the pouch in the throat used to temporarily store food) which suggested it had not been feeding despite there being food in the nest and the parents attending to it.

A very sad tale for Fingal and Iona this year. I had the honour of watching them raising their chick, Arwen, last year and seeing her go from egg to fledge in such a short space of time was very special. But they aren’t alone. Sadly a higher-than-average 9/20 white-tailed eagle nests have failed this year on Mull.

Despite having lost their chick, Fingal and Iona are still around Tiroran and have even been seen sitting in the nest tree on our tours.

Iona sat above the nest having lost her chick

If you would like to book on a tour here or at Craignure Golf Club where we are running coastal wildlife watches, please call the Visit Scotland Craignure iCentre on 01680 812377.

Thanks for reading,

Meryl

RSPB Ranger