A near miss

The Mull sea eagle 'Class of '08' chicks are now beginning to seriously explore their parent's territory, which is how it should be. As we've seen with Mara doing short 'Day Returns' to the nearby coast, day by day, week by week, they are getting bolder and more confident - sometimes a little too confident.

After a long search I had located the single chick from Territory 1 way up a remote glen rarely visited by anyone. He looked good and strong as he sat on the flood plain alongside the fast flowing river. He was basically minding his own business when a gang of 17 ravens decided to descend. This may have been several family groups all joined together into one seriously menacing mob. They all landed scattergun around the young eagle, flicking their wings in agitation and generally strutting their stuff in circles all around him. I could hear their deep 'cronking' calls, their almost musical contact calls and could see that the young eagle was getting more and more uneasy. A few of the boldest ravens even crept up behind him and repeatedly tugged at his tail, causing him to leap a few feet in the air which in turn caused the startled flock of corvids to do the same. All very amusing to watch but the mood suddenly turned. Out of the blue came one of the parent sea eagles - the female. She had been watching carefully from a nearby ridge and decided enough was enough. Just the distant sight of the adult eagle appearing in flight was enough to scare the ravens off and they all took flight and raced away across the glen. But all this excitement seemed to spook the young eagle which also took off from the ground and battled hard on young wings to stay aloft. What a huge effort it seemed to take. I could see it aiming at a distant farm ruin, the crumbling gable ends still standing tall with a rowan tree growing out of one end. He tried to land on the apex but misjudged his landing completely and tumbled, in a flurry of wings and feet, head first deep down into the ruin and out of sight. In the seconds that followed, I had visions of a ruin stuffed full of old barbed wire fence material, planks of wood from the collapsed roof and sharp, rusty nails. He seemed to be gone for ages. As I considered my prospects of surviving a wade across the flooding river to find him, I saw him leap out of the front door as if out of a catapult. He landed, his feathers severely ruffled and looked around him urgently, clearly hoping no one had witnessed this embarrassing event - especially not the ravens. After a few moments of gathering his composure, he flapped off again and sat on an old stone dyke where he sat and preened in the late afternoon sun. I imagined the adult female perched up on the ridge watching all this and shaking her head in disbelief. Her chick had learned one valuable lesson of survival but there would be many more adventures in the months ahead.

Dave Sexton RSPB Mull Officer