Our female white-tailed eagle, Iona, is currently sitting on 2 or possibly three eggs on the pair’s new nest in the top of a Sitka Spruce tree at Glen Seilisdeir. The first egg was laid late on 29th March and so is now 20 days old, just over half way through the 38 day incubation period: if everything goes to plan the first egg will hatch on 6th or 7th May.
We have had a brilliant week of weather leading up to the Easter weekend, culminating in a warm sunny day on Good Friday, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The eagle sightings have been spectacular with up to 6 eagles, 3 white-tailed and 3 golden, seen at any one time. On Monday we noticed 3 white-tailed eagles on and around a carcase on the hillside above the forest. Several ravens and hooded crows were also showing interest in the food and harried the eagles relentlessly when they took off. In mid-week we had a close fly-past by a juvenile golden eagle and today we walked down the hill to greet our visitors for the morning trip and noticed Fingal, our male bird, sat in the large tree just above the car park. He stayed there for about 20 minutes while we talked about him, and many photographs were taken. While we watched, a hooded crow flew onto a branch above him, repeatedly calling and finally diving down to drive him out of the tree.
All of our visitors are special, but on Thursday we had an extra-special visitor in the person of Professor Aubrey Manning, perhaps most famous for presenting TV programmes like ‘Landscape Mysteries’ and most recently ‘Earth Story’. He has long been a supporter of the Scottish Wildlife Trust and was fascinated to hear the success story of the reintroduction and recolonisation of the white-tailed eagles to Scotland.
Many of the groups this week comprised mainly families and it has been very rewarding to see how much the children have enjoyed seeing the eagles and other wildlife in Tiroran Forest, including numerous chaffinches, siskins and coal tits around the bird feeders, and a number of bloody-nosed beetles and a rare oil beetle crossing the woodland track. Our life-size replica white-tailed eagle nest has been very popular for photo opportunities with the kids and we have had up to 8 ‘chicks’ in the nest at any one time.
We are proud to have retained our maximum 5-star rating from Visit Scotland this year and we are continuously trying to improve the visitor experience. We now have a Mull Eagle Watch facebook page too, so do check that out. If you live on the Isle of Mull or are visiting the island this year do come along on one of our twice-daily trips (10am and 1pm each weekday). To book, telephone 01680 812556 or call in to the Visitor Information Centre at Craignure (opposite the ferry pier).
Always drive safely on Mull roads, but if you are visiting Mull in the next couple of weeks do take extra care as there are numerous free range lambs and calves at the moment.