As always at this time on year I am now chasing my tail, with 16 new hungry mouths to feed twice a day! We imported our latest batch on Friday 24th June, bringing the project total to 80 over the last five years. But, before I get to that I thought you would like to see how chick collection went in Norway.....
I flew into Alesund from Aberdeen on the 15th June, it was still light as we chatted all things sea eagle at 11pm! Alv Ottar had already collected one female by this stage, however, she had come out of the nest with a chest infection so was receiving medication, although ill she was large and feisty! We headed out in a boat the next day, checking 19 nest sites in total, half of them visually from the boat to check for occupancy and the number of chicks and jumping out onto small islands along the coast to walk in and check the others. The first nest that contained twins and we collected a chick from was on a small island opposite the town of Molde. The nest was in a tall pine and it took several goes to get the ropes in!
We managed to collect 3 chicks in total that day. They are very sociable and huddle together to comfort themselves after their ordeal back at the holding pens in Alv Ottar's garden.