It's been a good couple of days at the hide. Frisa and Skye have been very busy, in and out with tasty morsels. Today Frisa took some time out for a bath. The excited group at the forward hide watched as she swept round in front of them and then landed on the grassy spit of land jutting out in to the loch. Then, in she went - fully immersed. Imagine a blackbird in your bird bath in the garden and then multiply it a few thousand times. The flapping and fluttering is the same and they certainly seem to enjoy it. An eagle's nest can quickly become a pretty uninviting place after a month or two - unless you're an eagle that is. And for Frisa today, enough was enough. Time for a bit of a wallow in some clean, fresh, loch water. It must have felt very good indeed.
BBC Radio Scotland's 'Out of Doors' programme was here today. Presenter Mark Stephen, joined us at the hide at the end of the day and later had a stunning view of Skye perched on his loch-side tree. Mark was almost lost for words - but thankfully not quite! You can hear his encounter on line, on digital and on BBC Radio Scotland this Saturday 0630-0800, repeated Sunday morning 1105.
See how the sea eagles in Estonia are doing on the direct link below. The chicks are almost the same age as Frisa and Skye's and you can follow their progress via this excellent high quality live streaming video. Remember though that Estonia is two hours ahead of the UK so it gets dark earlier. Click on the 'White-Tailed Eagle TV' link and watch the amazing videos since March 2009 of the pair as they build their nest, lay their eggs, incubate in the snow, see off hooded crows and young sea eagles and eventually hatch within a day or two of Frisa and Skye. It's fascinating viewing. Enjoy!
White-tailed eagle TV
Dave Sexton RSPB Scotland Mull Officer
Hi Dave yes great link to web-cam in Estonia.Seems very interesting that they seem to feed all the time on fish unless we have missed other food.Makes me think its a pity perhaps that Scottish Sea Eagles seem to have different diet that perhaps leads to more conflict and problems for them.Interested to know what you think.Best wishes.
Reply: Hi Den & Ann. Our birds bring in alot of fish too but their remains do not last very long in the nest. Fish bones etc get digested or discarded quickly. So fish in the diet of Scottish sea eagles is greatly under-recorded. Also, a web cam like the one in Estonia allows us to ID prey very easily from the camera; a luxury we haven't got at Loch Frisa unfortunately! Looks like the Estonian pair are near a fresh water lake as pike seems their favourite prey at the moment but I'm sure like all sea eagles they will feed on a wide range of birds, fish, carrion and small mammals. Great webcam isn't it? Worth viewing the 'White-tailed eagle TV' highlights too. Thanks for reading the blog! Dave