Our new white-tailed eagle chick will be seven weeks old on Wednesday (25th 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 nest is located. The chick doesn’t have the bright yellow beak yet either but like the rest of the body it is just about full adult size. It will be another five weeks (on average), however, before this bird fledges. It still has lots of flight feather and muscle development to do before it is able to take to the skies and soar majestically over Tiroran Forest like its parents.
Unusually, last years offspring has been in the territory all spring. Again today it was perched in a tree relatively close to the nest site. ‘Orion’, as it was named by Tobermory schoolchildren, is much more difficult to spot when it roosting amongst the shadows in the imposing trees along the edge of the forest. When it flies and is silhouetted against the pale sky, however, it has the same ‘rectangular’ wing shape of the parents, which give white-tailed eagles the nickname ‘flying barn door’.
We have witnessed some spectacular interaction between our adult pair and the non-breeding pair of golden eagles that have been in the vicinity most of the spring. The manoeuvrability of such large birds is staggering. Last week we saw Iona, our female white-tailed eagle, leave the nest and, finding a thermal, soar skyward. Suddenly, in the distance the golden eagle pair appeared, quickly descending to start mobbing her. Each time, as they swooped down from above, Iona would flip over and show her talons to the attacking birds. This continued for 20 seconds until the goldies decided that discretion was the better part of valour and began soaring higher and higher until they disappeared into the cloud.
We have suffered some disruption to eagle nests this year by people trying to get too close. There have also been reports from other parts of the country of birds such as nightjars having their courtship disturbed by watchers and photographers playing recordings of bird calls to attract them closer. This is not only unethical, it is also illegal when disturbance to nesting is caused. There have also been several appalling incidents of birds of prey being poisoned this year, and any action such as this should be immediately reported to the police.
Not only are we seeing eagles each day at Mull Eagle Watch, we are also visited by a range of other birds and invertebrates. We frequently spot red deer on the moorland above the forest. Unfortunately, there are far too many red deer for the habitats to support on Mull as there are no natural predators here apart from humans. Not only do they cause a problem to farmers, but also damage deciduous trees by stripping the bark, and over-browse moorland vegetation, especially heather. This has a detrimental effect on all the many species such as mountain hare and emperor moth that depend on heather for food and shelter.
Don’t forget that we now have a live webcam on one of the Isle of Mull white-tailed eagle nests at http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/visit/mull/mull-eagle-watch