Friends

"So no one told you life was gonna be this way?"

I often wonder how some of the white-tailed eagle chicks that have fledged from Mull have fared over the years. The biggest question mark of all is what became of that first historic chick in 1985? We didn't wing tag, satellite or radio tag chicks in those early days. Especially not the first one for 70 years!  We just couldn't risk anything going wrong. But now I wish we had. When he launched off into the great unknown one July morning 25 years ago, all we could really do was watch him go and hope and wish him all the luck in the world.

We know he made it through his first winter, which can often be the most testing time for a young sea eagle out on his own. He was seen regularly around Mull a long way from the nest area so he'd obviously learnt to feed and look after himself. But then the trail went cold and he will have set off onto other islands and the mainland as they all do. Hopefully he met up with the final year's batch of releases from Norway on the Isle of Rum to the north of here. That would have given him some company and then he will have glided on to who knows where? I like to think that he may even still be out there today breeding at some ancient sea eagle site. It is just possible age-wise as we have some birds here which are now about 30 years old. We'll just have to keep wondering and dreaming.

But I'm pleased to say there are some old (or rather young) eagle friends out there that we do know something about. Wing tags helped us hugely with gathering information about the movements of the precious chicks once they'd fledged. They were not everyone's cup of tea and it's clearly nicer to see a sea eagle unfettered with plastic tags but they did the job we asked of them and didn't interfere with the eagles themselves. Although the East Scotland and Irish projects quite rightly still wing tag, we took the decision in the west that we'd gathered all the information we could using that technique and it was time to call it a day in 2007. As you know, since then we've been lucky enough to be able to afford to fit satellite tags to two Mull chicks each year thanks to our friends at Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland. They've been fitted with expert help from Roy Dennis of the Highland Foundation for Wildlife and Justin Grant and the data analysed by Natural Research Ltd.

So what of the notable reports of some other wing tagged sea eagle chums? I know that 1998 Green X (the first successful chick to fledge for Frisa and Skye) is now a mum herself and just yesterday I watched her on a massive sea cliff looking along to her brood of two chicks this year, bouncing up and down on the nest and getting ready to make their maiden flight. In these horrendous gales of late I was wishing they'd just lie flat until the winds eased. But they seemed to be loving it. Their grandparents at Loch Frisa this year, sadly without chicks to raise themselves, would have been very proud!

In 2005, a scrawny young male chick wing tagged Red V and nicknamed 'Valiant' by local people who were watching him made an early flight soon after fledging all the way to the Antrim Plateau in Northern Ireland. The following week he was back home on Mull! This year, after an absence of records for many years, he has been found paired up on another island and rearing a single chick of his own. He looks very grown up from that bundle of chocolate brown feathers which greeted me when he was lowered from his nest for tagging.

We yearn for reports of Frisa and Skye's famous chicks from 2005 'Itchy' and 'Scratchy' (Red I and S) who starred in the first ever live Springwatch broadcasts. I just know we're going to find one of them soon, maybe next year, paired up like 'Valiant' and raising a brood. The following year, in 2006 came 'Haggis' and 'Oatie' (Yellow H and O) and they've been seen regularly over the years around the west and east coasts (even as far the Outer Hebrides and Perthshire). Indeed Haggis was back here just a few weeks ago up near Tobermory.

But the best news this year involves another of Frisa and Skye's grandsons. Remember 2006 Yellow P, one of the 'freefall twins' who I wrote about a few years ago when their nest fell off the cliff one night in a storm? Both he and his brother Yellow G miraculously survived the ordeal. We rebuilt them a makeshift nest which the adults adopted as their own and both chicks went onto fledge successfully. Result!

Well just a few weeks ago, Yellow G was sighted sitting on top of a hill in Argyll looking fit and well but his brother Yellow P has gone one step further. At just 4 years old, he has paired up with another Mull chick a very long way from here and - wait for it - they're rearing not one but TWO chicks on their very first attempt!  It's still early days but it's looking promising for them all.  More news on that developing story when I can. But what a fantastic result and it gladdens the heart and lifts your spirits after the sadness of recent losses.

Some good friends - people and eagle - are really making it happen. As it says in the 'Friends' TV theme:

"I'll be there for you - when the rain starts to pour; I'll be there for you - like I've been there before; I'll be there for you - because you're there for me too".

Dave Sexton RSPB Scotland Mull Officer

Come and see Frisa and Skye on Mull this summer. Call 01680 812 556 to book a trip.