During my Birsay Moors guided walk on Monday 2nd May, we were lucky enough to see an immature sea eagle on the reserve. A huge bird which made the dive-bombing great skuas (aka bonxies) look very small (and anyone who has been mobbed by these birds know they are not small!). The eagle had a posse of admiring/nervous greylag geese in tow, the Greylags obviously wanted/needed to keep track of what is one of the few natural predators for this species. It spent a good couple of hours on the reserve before heading off high to the west.
An immature Sea eagle by Chris Gomersall
No sign of any wing tags but it was a ringed individual. Fortunately, what we think is the same individual was first spotted on North Ronaldsay on 24th/25th April where the rings were read in the field and the individual was identified as being a chick from around the Skye/Lochalsh area in 2010. Young sea eagles do tend to wander in there first few years of life, especially in the spring when the parents are looking to breed again and don't want last years youngsters hanging around the eyrie/territory. This individual was also seen over our Cottascarth reserve on Sunday 1st May, it was seen over Stenness on Tuesday 3rd May and then in the distance over the RSPB office in Stromness heading south towards our Hoy reserve. At which point we had assumed it may be heading back to the mainland Scotland.
However, warden Barry & Rebecca O'Dowd had the fortune of seeing two sea eagles together over Trumland reserve on Rousay on Wednesday 4th May. An immature bird and an adult! So not only could they still be about there are two of them to increase your chances... A future breeding species, I hope.
Alan (Warden - Orkney Reserves)