Spring has sprung on the beautiful isle of Mull with primroses and colts-foot flowering in the warm sunshine of the last couple of days.  Frogspawn is developing in the ponds and small birds are singing: our local wren has been calling from dawn 'til dusk, only out-competed by  the repetitive call of a male song thrush singing its heart out from the top of a spruce tree.  A pair of great tits has already occupied one…

Sorry for the delay in news but as you may have read we have now moved over to a new blog software!  Still finding my way round it so hope this works!!  I am holding the fort for a few days while Dave has a well earned rest.

The one piece of news I wanted to share with you is the naming of our chicks.  This year Ulva Primary School chose the names and the names chosen are Heather for our female and Bracken for our male…

Mixed weather this week with great views of white-tailed eagles and golden eagles on sunny days and long periods of inactivity from the birds on wet days.

Our female, Iona, laid her first egg on 29th March, so that means it is 13 days old today – just another 25 days until it (hopefully) hatches. She has probably laid at least another egg, possibly 2, but we won’t know for sure until they hatch. Fingal, the male, has…

Well we've had celebrity dancing, cooking and ice skating. We've had celebrities in the jungle, up Mount Kilimanjaro and making it to the South Pole (probably the North Pole too but I must have missed that one). We've had celebrity ghost hunting, Love Island, men in boats, wife swapping and finally here comes celebrity birdwatching! Yes folks standby for a new look to Sky 1 in the New Year as comedian Bill Bailey…

Today at Loch Frisa, as we all prepare ourselves for the inevitable, an eagle's head in the clouds is pretty much all that's been visible. The dreich weather continued to cast a gloomy blanket over the forest and loch. And over the eagle's nest . As the rain fell, the soggy head and beak of Frisa (or was it Skye?) was just about visible above the rim of the nest. Sometimes the head shook, sending a small shower…

Lots of eagle activity for the first week of Mull Eagle Watch trips.

 Having located the new nest of our pair of white-tailed eagles - Iona (female) and Fingal (male) – we have made rapid changes to maintain and improve the visitor experience, which was again awarded the maximum 5-star rating from Visit Scotland last year.  Two new shelters have been constructed to provide cover from which we can watch the eagle…

(courtesy The Three Degrees)

Wow! What a year it has been!  After a fantastic summer of Olympics and Paralympics - we woke up this morning to the fantastic news that Andy Murray has won his first Grand Slam - the first British male since 1936 - there have been some incredible moments and I'm sure we all have our favourites - all I can say is that I'm glad I don't have to choose Sports Personality of the Year!…

Can you recall where you were and what you were doing 25 years ago?  I was living in Hertfordshire, sitting behind a desk working for a large pharmaceutical company and listening to Wham 'Careless Whisper', Dire Straits 'Money for Nothing' (remember that video?), and my favourite band, Simple Minds singing 'Don't You Forget about me'! In the news that year - fire engulfed a wooden stand at Valley Road, Bradford during…

Our juvenile white-tailed eagle from the Mull Eagle Watch nest at Glen Seilisdeir has recently been named by children from Tobermory School.  They chose Orion from a short-list of names, because in Greek mythology Orion was a hunter who has a constellation named after him, and our young eagle flies high in the sky, almost reaching the stars.  What a great choice!

Today, despite the gusty wind and intermittent heavy showers…

The Isle of Mull white-tailed eagles are busy nest-building - getting ready to lay eggs sometime soon.  The Mull Eagle Watch rangers are also gearing up ready for another season showing visitors our pair, Iona and Fingal, at Glen Seilisdeir.  We are aiming for an even better year than last year, when we retained our top 5-star Visit Scotland rating and achieved the highest marks from our 'Mystery Visitor'.  if you…

but not quite yet!

This evening I went to check up on Half Pint to see whether he has fledged yet.  He and his sibling were 12 weeks old today!  Its a bit of a precarious walk and loaded with a telescope, binoculars, daughter in tow, we tentatively made our way to the best position to view the nest without any of us tripping up, dropping the scope or the other threat, getting soaked to the skin by the heavy, intermittent…

Remember this?  The bundle of fluff here is the chick at Tiroran when he was being ringed in the middle of June.

Well today and I am delighted to report the fantastic news that the chicks at Tiroran South West Mull & Iona Development Trust and West Ardhu North West Mull Community Woodland sites have now successfully fledged.  The story was covered in the Scottish Press here https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news…

Well I'm sure many of you have heard by now that we have some special visitors on the Island - the BBC Autumnwatch team with Chris Packham and Martin Hughes-Games.  They have been capturing some of Mull's finest wildlife - I wont spoil it and tell you what but just to remind you to make sure you watch this Thursday, 4th November at 8.30pm on BBC2.

Today they came down to Loch Frisa to film Dave with Chris Packham…

It has been a week of real development for the white-tailed eagle chick on the nest at Mull Eagle Watch, Glen Seilisdeir.  It reached full size over a week ago, but since Monday it has gradually ventured further and further out on branches around the nest, unsteadily at first, but with more confidence as the days have passed.  The wing stretching and flapping have increased and its call is less chick-like and more adult…

There will be beautiful rspb Christmas cards, calendars, wrapping paper, diaries, etc. for sale at events on Mull in the next couple of days.  I will be at Bunessan Bakehouse 11am-4pm on Friday 29th November (with lots of tea and cake!) and will also be taking a scope to spot wildlife in Bunessan Bay (the Bunessan white-tailed eagle pair with any luck).  On Saturday 30th, I will be at An Roth, Craignure from 10am-4pm with…

(no alas - its not a song title- couldnt come up with one to fit!)

Some of you may have heard by now the fantastic news that Somerset and Carolyne Charrington from Treshnish Farm on Mull won the RSPB Telegraph Nature of Farming Awards.  As you can imagine we are all absolutely over the moon - Congratulations to Carolyne and Somerset who do a wonderful job out at Treshnish.  A huge thank you to everyone who showed their…

I don't know if this will work! I've tried to keep Debby's excellent blog and photos up here for a while yet so that I can just add a few words to it...

Still stunningly beautiful here on the Isle of Mull. A covering of snow, ice crystals and frost on everything. And with a cloudless blue sky, the sun has shone bright all day. The garden birds have been busy on the feeders since first light and down at the…

Well, Heather is turning out to be a quick learner.  On Friday as we watched her in a field in front of the Hide, it was clear she had caught something and was feeding.  It was very difficult to see what it was, but I was surprised how quickly she had managed to work out how to catch something.  Today, she took another step forward in her journey towards independence.  As we looked out of the Hide window, we saw a large bird…

After a great season, the trips at Mull Eagle Watch are now finished for the time being.  Forestry operations are ongoing in Tiroran Forest and access to the site is not currently possible.

Whilst the numerous unfaithful osprey pairings around the UK go about their daily soap opera shenanigans, our rock steady pair of white-tailed eagles, Fingal and Iona, stick to what's important in life: their eggs - their future. These amazing birds have known each others funny ways for a decade or more and have seen each other through thick and thin for many years. And they really know what matters: each other. They…

courtesy Belinda Carlisle

Fingal and Iona's chicks are now coming up to 8 weeks old - where has the time gone?  They have been fitted with their snazzy leg rings - so they now have a unique number.  Let's hope no-one ever has to ring the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) phone number that is printed on the leg ring, in case found.  This week, the pupils from Bunessan Primary School are visiting the hide and…

then I'll begin.  How many times have you heard that phrase - for me as a young girl watching Jackanory and waiting with baited breath for the latest instalment of a story - and then counting the hours until the next programme to find out what happened next. 

And so at Loch Frisa - we begin the next instalment of the story of  Skye and Frisa - only its not fiction, its real life.  Well I am delighted to report that Frisa…

"Drinking in the morning sun, blinking in the morning sun"

Frisa felt stirrings beneath her. The first time had been in the middle of the night. If the moon had been full and bright she may even have stood up there and then to see what was happening but in the darkness of a moonless April night, she sat low and tight until dawn.

Skye was unusually keen to arrive at the nest at daybreak to take over his incubation…

After leading us a merry dance last week, Iona and Fingal, our pair of white-tailed eagles nesting in Tiroran Forest, Glen Seilisdeir on the Isle of Mull, have decided to nest in a different location this year.  Finally, on Friday, they settled for a completely new nest site in a sheltered location in the broken top of a Sitka spruce and Iona hunkered down late in the afternoon to start laying eggs.  Last years juvenile…

I am sat writing this blog on a balmy Sunday evening - the window is open and a blackbird is singing its heart out, along with the calls of curlews and oystercatchers mixed in with a cuckoo.  Its a wonderful time of year as new life is springing up all over the place.

Visitors to South West Mull & Iona Development Trust have been wowed by some fantastic flying displays from Fingal and Iona, as well as some tender…