This week I saw my first sea eagle....

....from the Irish release! Following up on some sightings over the last couple of months I radio-tracked over the 'Lecht' in the Grampians on Sunday morning and as well as searching for my Scottish birds also checked for some of Allan's missing Irish birds and was really excited to pick up the beep of a 2008 male, tag 'H' it took me another 10 minutes before I spotted him soaring high above the ski centre. This bird was last identified near Braco in the summer but there had been sightings of a bird with Irish wing tags (white on the right wing and the year colour - red for 2008 - on the left) near the Lecht recently. The eagle is likely to be roosting in the lower-altitude wooded valleys, but was enjoying the thermals when I found it. Another 2008, Irish bird (tag L) is currently on Islay after spening much of the summer near Durness. You can follow the satellite-tagged Irish birds at: www.goldeneagle.ie/

Ralf is still showing well at RSPB Loch of Strathbeg and it is hard to find a birdwatcher in the Aberdeen area who hasn't been to see him now! He seems to be attempting to catch geese most days but often settles for a duck or some carrion instead. You can follow the link below to a fantastic clip of him on YouTube. Despite all of his hunting efforts he doesn't appear to have moved the locations of the goose roosts, often appearing after the geese have left their roost site for the day.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kijip#p/a/0/sS_NpmIjJUA

Of our 2009 birds, most are still mixing with 2008 birds around the Tay estuary, with one male near Killiecrankie.

I've been lucky to be involved in a couple of different events in the last couple of weeks. Firstly ,a re-introduction conference for 14-18 year olds run by Edinburgh Zoo which was well attended by schools in the area. Secondly third year illustration students from the Duncan of Jordanstone Art School in Dundee are working on interpretative designs for the project and you can see their finished works in the exhibition below:

The Perth museum 'Return of the Natives' exhibition featuring sea eagles and our project DVD finishes on the 15th December.