X-Factor Eagles/Midweek sat tag update

News just in for Mara: a few days ago on December 8th he was roosting at Glencripesdale on the south side of Loch Sunart. He had travelled from Glengorm on Mull where he was a couple of days prior to that. The area he roosted in is one of woodlands and cliffs within a National Nature Reserve. He's clearly roving around between Mull and the mainland. Looking forward to news of Breagha soon. Conclusion to the X-Factor eagles tomorrow...

His was a lonely vigil. Blue X was a male chick from a nest on Mull in 2002. In his early years he did what all young sea eagles do and drifted far and wide, up and down the west coast of Scotland. But by 2006, as a sub adult aged four, I started to see him on a regular basis whenever I visited a distant part of northern Mull.

He was always alone. The resident pair of golden eagles gave him a hard time whenever he glided into view and he always retreated as fast as he could - back the same way he'd come. His batchelor life saw him cruising the cliff tops, riding the gales and always dining alone.

But one January 1st, he looked like he had invited a few friends round to celebrate the New Year. There he was circling high over the sea cliffs and beneath him were six other immature sea eagles. Perhaps there was a dead deer in the forest or a seal on the beach that was attracting them all in from miles around for their Hogmanay feast.

They jostled and chased each other in the crisp winter air. Blue X tried to look like he was in charge with all these young upstarts in his territory. He was very tolerant of them; perhaps he actually welcomed the company? Unlike golden eagles, sea eagles are sociable birds and regularly come together in winter roosts.

It was the winter after Itchy and Scratchy had fledged from Loch Frisa and I'd not seen Itchy for months. All of a sudden there he was flying beneath me as I sat on the cliff top trying to count all the eagles around me and to occasionally read a wing tag in flight. No easy task but with Itchy there was no mistake. His red tags and letter 'I' were easy to read as he drifted passed me, looking straight at me at one point. As my eyes locked onto his, I whispered "good to see you boy" under my breath. It was great to see him doing so well and in the company of so many other youngsters.

One of the other young eagles was a larger bird with green tags from 2004. Clearly a female from her size and showing the lighter plumage of a two year old. I just could not get a good enough view of her tags to read them properly.

A few days later I returned to the same spot hoping to see them all again but I suspect the carcase had long since been finished off and the skies were empty again - except that is, for Blue X - back on his lonely beat. He had been abandoned by all the party go-ers - or so it seemed. As I watched him disappear behind the trees, out from the cliff face flew a second eagle. I thought it was the same green-tagged bird I'd seen the other day. She flew out from directly below me and I had a good clear view of her tags.

It was Green X. She followed Blue X's flight line exactly and also vanished behind the trees. Later I checked on her identity. She too was from a Mull nest, a different one to Blue X, and was just two years old. I retraced my steps, hiked over the ridge and stopped for a while to eat my lunch and to scan the coastline below. The sound of gull alarm calls alerted me to something down near the point. There, sitting, a few metres apart were Blue X and Green X. Surely, just coincidence. She was way too young to even think about pairing up - wasn't she?

Next time - the latest chapter in the lives of the eagles with the X-Factor.

Dave Sexton RSPB Scotland Mull Officer