Some of you have asked for an update on the family of Green "T" and her mate Blue "9".  The two chicks are doing fantastically well - Mum and Dad are still feeding them but the chicks can now also feed themselves, helping themselves to leftovers lying around the nest.  The younger chick, only by a day or two, is turning out to be a bit of bully to its bigger sibling - and certainly makes sure it gets…

(courtesy Adele)

For the month of May, the majority of the UK has been basking in sunshine whereas the West Coast of Scotland has had more than its fair share of rain.  May is usually one of our best months weatherwise - and its also one of our busiest months on Mull for visitors.  I really felt sorry for visitors to the Island as day after day, we were faced with rain all day, every day.  Added to that we also experienced…

Thank you all for your patience and interest in the progress - or otherwise - of Frisa and Skye and all their fellow white-tailed eagles on Mull.

As you can imagine it's been a hectic period throughout incubation and now into the early chick stage. Everyone here does their best to keep them safe and to try and ensure they're all successful but there's always the hand of fate which intervenes to make some pairs succeed…

Well our visitors to Loch Frisa have certainly had plenty to entertain them over the last few days.

A bout of high pressure has brought us sunshine and blue skies - a great relief after the constant rainfall last week.  It seems as though everything has gone into overdrive.

Suddenly we are inundated with warblers, peacock butterflies, and bees.  We have been hearing the cuckoo for about a month and one is regularly seen…

Its amazing how we drag ourselves through winter with the long dark nights and then all of a sudden, its Spring! 

Skye and Frisa are now well and truly into the routine of incubation.  Frisa tends to do the night shift on the nest, with Skye taking over for a couple of hours first thing in the morning while she has a preen.  They then take it in turns throughout the day though if its wet, the bird on the nest will stay…

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…

I don't know what to make of Kellan today.

Kellan was the only chick from a pair of white-tailed eagles on Mull. He was found by a friendly farmer last autumn with a broken wing and other injuries. After months of expert care from the Scottish SPCA he was as ready as he was ever going to be to return to the wild and came home to Mull in December. Since then he has made amazing progress; he can fly and perch well;…

Sorry for the delay in updating things for you. It's just that time of year...

It's been a long day and the eyelids are drooping so just for now, here's today's busy headlines. One day on Mull in 10 bullet points.

• 0900 Loch Frisa: now you see them, now you don't. Frisa & Skye AWOL. Not a hint. They're not where they should be. Worried.
• 1100 New pair just established have had their first…

The snowdrops and crocuses are out and bring some welcome colour to the garden at this time of the year.  The daffodils aren't far behind and for the last week, a robin has been singing his little heart out as I refill the bird feeders.  Is Spring just around the corner?  There are days when it certainly feels like it.  I had a trip to the hide at the end of last week and it was a lovely sunny day - in fact we stayed…

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…

There were moments over the next few weeks when you really had to wonder about the maternal and paternal bonds of eagle parents and their offspring. Birds of prey like white-tailed eagles are 'hard-wired'. It's all instinctive. When there's a chick around to feed, calling, food begging, they'll hunt, feed and protect it. If it vanishes overnight, the stimulus is removed and they move on. No food begging: no need to hunt…

I was used to handling eaglets from the nest when they were being ringed at 4-5 weeks old and even at the satellite or wing tagging stage when they're usually 8-9 weeks old. But what lay before me was a totally different ball game. This was a fully grown eagle who had tasted freedom and was not about to surrender it lightly. Maybe it was just too risky to attempt it alone. If one talon pierced something critical I could…

And it was all going so well. Too well.

Kellan, the young male white-tailed eagle from a nest on Mull in 2010, had successfully fledged from his nest high up in a block of Sitka spruce. He was being eagerly watched by many people on the campsite, by visitors on wildlife expeditions and from the boat trips up the loch. He'd been seen flying well by many observers and had even made it as far as his parent's favourite…

This is the story of a young white-tailed eagle on Mull called Kellan. So far it has a beginning, a middle but, as yet, no end. I really hope it stays that way.

Kellan was the only chick to hatch from his egg in a clutch of two last summer. He was special and different right from the start. He grew fast and strong in his sturdy nest, tended, brooded and fed daily by his two white-tailed parents. The male of the pair is…

Well apologies for leaving it so long to blog but its that time of year when its just hectic with all sorts going on.  Dave has been up to his eyes writing reports, attending meetings and keeping a close eye on the movements of the eagles.  I have still been running trips to the hide but with the recent spell of weather, we had to suspend them for a few days as the track to Frisa was too icy but hopefully back to normal…

Well as I sit here typing, the wind is howling outside and the rain is lashing against the window and it seems like the whole of the UK is getting a battering this time.  Incredibly, just yesterday we were enjoying blue sky and sunshine.  The car thermometer read -4C as I left home for Loch Frisa and as I drove down the forestry track, I could see the loch shining like a mirror and Ben More  looking splendid with a covering…

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…

Well what a week its been here on Mull - where do I start?  Well I guess the weather as that is the subject we seem to talk about most!  We have been enjoying a return to summer - clear blue skies and warm sunshine which gives us chilly evenings with some incredible starry skies.  We are fortunate to have some of the darkest skies in Europe and at the moment we are getting some great views of the moons surrounding Jupiter…

We have been sampling some truly wonderful Autumn weather on Mull at the moment - bright days with chilly evenings and this morning, for the first time, we had to scrape the frost from the car windscreen.  The colours will now come into their own with the leaves on the trees turning every shade of yellow, orange and brown before they finally fall.

Today, at the hide, with a backdrop of blue sky and sunshine, a glass was…

In case you missed it, here is a link to BBC2 Iplayer for the short film by Gordon Buchanan called Mull - Eagle Paradise - enjoy!

We've made you wait for this moment but they're here at last!

At the end of June this year with help from our friends at Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland, we fitted light-weight satellite tags to two of Mull's fine young white-tailed eagle chicks. World…

Well as I sit here typing, there is not a cloud in the sky and as the sun goes down, there is a lovely pinky hue.  It has been lovely and warm today and the sun cream has made a welcome return.  We are having some truly wonderful weather, although there are signs of Autumn creeping through.  The bracken has started to turn golden yellow and the rowan trees are weighed down with their bunches of brightly coloured berries.

One of the great highlights for me every year is to actually see the young white-tailed eagles which you've watched over and fretted about for so long, actually in the air and flying! After all it's what they're born to do. Whilst it's the one thing we have little actual control over (as Loch Frisa proved this year) to see the chicks through hatching, growing and fledging is how we judge the success or failure of our…

Well I am delighted to report that summer has made a comeback on Mull.  Just when we thought our jumpers and coats were coming out of summer hibernation, ready for autumn and winter, the warm weather has returned.  We have been enjoying cloudless blue skies and warm sunshine, sadly a bit too late for our school children as they return this week. 

Also making a welcome return to Loch Frisa has been Heather, our chick fr…

Having recently experienced a drought on Mull, I think I can safely say, that it is over!  We have had our fair share of rain over the last few weeks so when it is dry, you have to dash outside and get all those outdoor jobs done such as cutting the grass which seems to grow at a phenominal rate on this Island!

For those of you who haven't been to the eagle hide at Loch Frisa, this is the view taken one day last week…