There has again been a great deal of good publicity for Mull as a wildlife tourism destination, mainly due to the white-tailed eagles. The BBC Springwatch crew were here filming a nest in the north of the island and covered the ringing of the offspring of one of our most famous birds ‘Itchy’, who is now nesting with its partner on the Scottish mainland. It has also been possible to watch one of the Mull white-tailed eagle nests via a new live webcam, and the exploits of the chick, when it was knocked out of the nest by an intruding eagle, and then returned to the nest unharmed, received national news coverage.
We are very close to the time when the white-tailed eagle chicks on Mull will be fledging. This can be the most dangerous time of the birds life and there have been youngsters killed or badly injured at this stage due to falling from the nest or crash landing after the initial flight. The first winter too can be very difficult: young eagles are learning to fly, search for food and interact, not only with other members of their own race, but also with golden eagles and other birds such as buzzards and ravens that can be very aggressive and which can cause serious damage if conflict occurs.
We have been seeing lots of this behaviour on our trips in the last couple of weeks: on one occasion, a pair of non-breeding golden eagles that were soaring above our viewing area at Glen Seilisdeir started mobbing one of our adult white-tailed eagles after it left the nest. The larger golden eagle, the female, swooped down as Iona, our female bird, headed back off toward Loch Scridain (this is our local sea loch, where most of the fishing by our pair takes place). As it approached from above and behind, Iona rolled over in flight and stretched out her legs, warding it off with her huge talons. After several similar encounters, the golden eagles headed back up into the blue sky, eventually disappearing behind Ben More, the largest mountain on Mull.
All around Mull, large numbers of smaller birds are fledging their young, and in the last week I have seen baby oystercatchers, curlew, greylag geese, pied wagtails, swallows, house martins and siskins. Our bird feeders at Mull Eagle Watch have also been visited by a family of young coal tits, one of which decided to investigate the inside of the hide. Unfortunately, it flew into one of the windows, but luckily was only slightly stunned. Ironically, it decided to sit just above the head of the stuffed golden eagle, resting their until it had recovered sufficiently to be released outside.
If you would like to view the live webcam pictures, the link is http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/visit/mull/mull-eagle-watch
John Clare, RSPB Community Information & Tourism Officer