Stuart Benn is back with a new blog about cuckoos and white-tailed eagles.
A Cacophony of Cuckoos
A couple of weeks ago, I was getting worried that I hadn’t heard my first cuckoo but I didn’t need to wait too much longer – 2nd May for me, just a day later than two of the birds tracked by the BTO made it back to the south of England after their amazing journeys. I’ve heard a few since but, yesterday, I was overwhelmed by them, seemingly shouting from every birch wood. There doesn’t appear to be any agreed name for a collection of cuckoos which is odd for such a familiar and loved bird. Any thoughts?
This cuckoo cornucopia was over in Shieldaig in the far north-west of Scotland amidst gorgeous scenery and the sort of place you want to take people to who think Britain is overcrowded. What took me there was to see where things were with SEEVIEWS – like most acronyms it’s rather contrived but it’s a project about White-tailed eagles and their links with Scotland’s communities, an association they had shared for thousands of years.
That is until the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Sea eagles (as they are also known) became unpopular with shepherds and gamekeepers, and all too popular with taxidermists and egg collectors. The end result was the familiar tale of dwindling numbers culminating in the shooting of the last bird, on Shetland, in 1918. But, as I’ve blogged before, conservation is about both keeping what you have and putting back what you’ve lost, and some far-sighted people reintroduced Sea eagles into Scotland from the mid-70s onwards.
The birds have slowly spread but it would be fair to say that their arrival on the west of Scotland hasn’t been universally popular and there have been repeated calls by some that they are causing heavy losses of lambs. So much so that two major studies have been carried out into the true impact, most recently at Gairloch. Both have almost wholly exonerated the eagles and make interesting reading.
But other communities have embraced the Sea eagles and realised that they can be a tremendous asset bringing real economic benefits - which brings us back to Shieldaig. Here, Alison, our local RSPB officer, the National Trust for Scotland and the local community have done a brilliant job in getting a camera installed at the Sea eagle nest on the island. This will beam back live pictures of the eagles’ family lives to Nanny’s tearoom in the village.
As ever, there have been numerous technical and other issues to sort out and there are currently no pictures so, at Nanny’s, I had to make do with a lovely warm welcome, the nicest lemon drizzle cake I’ve had in a long time and cuckoos calling from the door. Before too long you’ll be able to enjoy all of those and the sea eagle pics too!
Photos: John Bridges (rspb-images.com), Stuart Benn