An invitation to come along tomorrow, Saturday 30th November, from 10am to 4 pm, and visit me at An Roth charity shop in Craignure, Isle of Mull (by the Cal-Mac ferry pier) to support the rspb by buying Christmas cards, calendars, wrapping paper, diaries, cuddly toys, gift memberships, etc.  I will also have a telescope set up (weather permitting) to watch for the Craignure otter and seabirds, dolphins, etc. in Bunessan…

22nd July 2017

The eaglet at Tiroran Community Forest is just over 10 weeks old today and is set to fledge within the next couple of weeks.

White-tailed eagles usually fledge at 12-13 weeks old so it has a little longer to go yet before it makes its first flight and our visitors are seeing it becoming ever-more active in the nest.

We’ve been seeing the chick – who we think is female and is now adult-sized – flapping…

The chick at Tiroran is now flying like an old pro! It hasn't taken him long to master the skills of picking up a thermal, a warm pocket of air to give him some height, and showing off some beautiful soaring.  Fingal and Iona are never far away, and are still bringing in food as the chick is not independent yet, but that will not be long.

Iona, female white tailed eagle - Tiroran Forest - Debby Thorne

As…

The white-tailed eagle chick from the nest at Mull Eagle Watch, Glen Seilisdeir has fledged successfully. After several days of sitting on branches around the nest, when its wing flapping and teetering on the point of flying had drawn ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the visitors watching through telescopes and binoculars, it finally flew just 50 metres across the clearing into the top of another of the big conifers in the forestry…

Iona and Fingal are having to pull out all the stops to bring in food for their offspring, so on most days we are seeing lots of activity around the nest.  We are still seeing other eagles soaring and flying over, including the non-breeding pair of golden eagles that appear to be looking to set up a territory nearby.  The chick(s) will be growing rapidly in the coming week and we should shortly be able to get clear views…

Our new white-tailed eagle chick will be seven weeks old on Wednesday (25^th June).  We can see it moving around the nest, feeding and exercising its wings.  The overall plumage has darkened to the mottled brown colour it will remain for the first couple of years, very different from the pale head and breast feathers and white tail of the adults, which stand out from the dark green background of the spruce trees where the…

Here we are into June already, and while Springwatch covers one of the more recent Isle of Mull pairs of white-tailed eagles (a Mull-fledged bird and a Scottish East coast release bird) the Mull Eagle Watch trips continue at Tiroran Forest in Glen Seilisdeir. 

 Our white-tailed eagle chick is 27 days old today and is growing rapidly.  Already its plumage is darkening and the parents are spending less and less time on the…

It was a great year leading the Mull Eagle Watch trips, watching the white-tailed eagles at the nest, but it is even more special when the eagles visit me.

When I was out in the garden the other day a large shadow flashed across the ground, and on looking up into the sky I saw a pair of white-tailed eagles soaring overhead.  Without a single flap of the wings they circled above the house, and I could almost see the glint…

Iona and Fingal, our pair of white-tailed eagles, are parents again.  On Wednesday morning this week I arrived at the Mull Eagle Watch hide early, hoping that there would be signs that the first egg had hatched, exactly 38 days after we saw the female hunker down on the nest to start laying.  As soon as I trained the telescope on the nest it was clear that both adults were there, their pale heads and huge yellow beaks visible…

There are places on this planet that draw you back time and time again. Even on Mull with lots of visitors from Easter to October there are still many stretches of secret coast where you can lose yourself and never see a soul. There's one such place I have the arduous task of having to visit several times a season to check on one of the remotest pairs of nesting white-tailed eagles in Scotland. And actually, it is quite…

The sightings at Mull Eagle Watch just keep on getting better, especially now the adult white-tailed eagles are feeding their offspring. Fingal the male, particularly, is bringing in increasing numbers of small prey items including fish, gulls and greylag geese, while before the first egg hatched on 7th May, both adults were taking it in turns to incubate the eggs or feed on the carcase of a red deer up on the moorland…

Our white-tailed eagle chick at Glen Seilisdeir on the Isle of Mull was 11 weeks old yesterday and is very active on the nest indicating that it will be fledging very soon. It is already ‘branching out’: flapping and scrambling out onto the branches that radiate from the broken top of the sitka spruce tree where the birds have chosen to nest this year.

This can be the most dangerous time for the young eagle…

Kellan came into our lives on 25 April 2010. Watching from afar, we thought there had been a hatch. His mum, Yellow Black Spot (YBS) was restless, fidgety. Up and down, looking into the nest. Something had changed. Two days later we confirmed it. YBS was feeding Kellan. Delicate, tiny strips of fish from a friendly boat operator on the sea loch below. His dad was a regular visitor, taking advantage of this helpful opportunity…

There has again been a great deal of good publicity for Mull as a wildlife tourism destination, mainly due to the white-tailed eagles. The BBC Springwatch crew were here filming a nest in the north of the island and covered the ringing of the offspring of one of our most famous birds ‘Itchy’, who is now nesting with its partner on the Scottish mainland. It has also been possible to watch one of the Mull white-tailed eagle…

Last Saturday, we were celebrating the official opening of the South West Mull & Iona Development Trust Community Forest at Tiroran.  Mull Eagle Watch were delighted to be a part of this wonderful day and visitors were amazed to see a display from Iona, the female, having a grapple with the local buzzard who had flown a bit too close to the nest.  As well as enjoying the sunshine and the delights of the forest, visitors…

For 5 months this year I have been leading trips to watch the pair of white-tailed eagles that are nesting in Tiroran Forest, Glen Seilisdeir on the Isle of Mull. There have been some memorable moments during that time: our two adults mating in a tree after the female had laid her first egg, the first sight of the downy white head of the chick after it had hatched, food being brought to the chick on the nest, aerial battles…

(Photo courtesy Iain Erskine)

the egg (s) they have been incubating for the last 38 days have finally hatched!   Having endured persistent rain, Arctic blasts and a blizzard, Fingal and Iona have done an amazing job keeping the egg (s) dry and warm and are now feeding their young.  At this moment, we do not know how many chicks they have as they are still tiny and safely cocooned within the nest cup or under an adult bird…

courtesy Black Eyed Peas

We are back!  Today was the first day at our new location in Glen Seilisdeir on the western side of the Island.  Set against the stunning backdrop of Ben More, with lochs, forestry, plantations, we are in fantastic eagle country.

Due to ongoing forest management, Skye and Frisa  will be stepping (or flapping!) out of the limelight for a while - they are fine and we will bring you news on them…

16th June 2017

On Friday 9^th June, Mull Eagle Watch visitors witnessed the special moment when our chick at Tiroran Community Forest earned its very own leg rings.

At the beginning of the tour, we were admiring Iona, perched atop one of her favourite trees where she could still keep an eye on the eyrie. The chick was nowhere to be seen in the nest, nestled down fast asleep. Little did it know…

We waited in anticipation…

Kellan had been away from Mull for three long months. It was time to bring him home.

The RSPB doesn't generally do wildlife rescue and animal welfare. It's just not what we're set up for - or why the Society first came into being. We protect birds and other wildlife through policy work, research, land acquisition, species protection and investigations. We don't have the expertise or experience to rescue and look after…

Since our juvenile white-tailed eagle, Orion, fledged at Mull Eagle Watch, Glen Seilisdeir, I have been leading walks to the nest and beyond in search of the birds.  Some days we get distant views of the adults and juvenile flying, some days we don't see any eagles at all, but some days we get really close-up sightings of the birds sitting in their favourite tree roosts.  One such day occurred just over a week ago,…

At the end of the track in Tiroran Forest, where I lead visitors on the Mull Eagle Watch trips, I stood with a party of people taking in the spectacular view over Glen Seilisdeir and out to Loch Scridain: the sea loch where our pair of white-tailed eagles do most of their hunting. Almost giving up hope of seeing the eagles, we turned and started to head back toward the viewing area that overlooks the nest tree where the…

Stop press: 18 chicks found in nest at Glen Seilisdeir!

Well 18 pupils to be exact! This week we were delighted to welcome the P4-P7 pupils and teachers from Bunessan Primary School.  The children (and teachers) were very excited and after a talk about the eagles, we set off very quietly to the very special viewing area where they would be able to see the chicks in the feathers so to speak!

We headed off down the…

I am delighted to report that Mull Eagle Watch re-opens for business on Monday 4th April 2016. This year we are pleased to report that we will be running from 2 sites on Community Forest Land. The first site is at Tiroran, home to Fingal and Iona who many of you will already know and stars from the series The Hebrides. Fingal and Iona have made their home in the South West Mull & Iona Development Trust Our second…

Our female white-tailed eagle, Iona, is currently sitting on 2 or possibly three eggs on the pair’s new nest in the top of a Sitka Spruce tree at Glen Seilisdeir.  The first egg was laid late on 29^th March and so is now 20 days old, just over half way through the 38 day incubation period: if everything goes to plan the first egg will hatch on 6^th or 7^th May.

We have had a brilliant week of weather leading up to…