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…

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…