Thursday 15 April 2010

A convocation of Eagles....

Wednesday was another fine day with an absolutely cracking start. I had to head round the loch to get some photos of the spectacle....
This is White 7 (female from East coast) and White 3 (male from West coast). Not bad you say....just to the right of these two was this....
...one of last years birds. Wow, eh? Moving right again....
...another two of last years birds (right hand bird is sporting a blue ring 80)- what's going on here!! Looking further right again....
...yet another of last years birds - six WT Eagles together, fabulous!!! The gulls that were flying around would spot them and launch an attack but the young giants didn't want to be moved. I did get a shot of this last bird as it came in to land...
After taking the photos I rallied the guests for the day and rushed back to find the birds still in position - what a way to start the day! We saw two Golden Eagles in flight as we were watching the other birds. We headed a bit further round the loch to view a GN Diver and as we were approaching the bird two of the WT Eagle were flying across the loch. One of the birds stooped towards the GN Diver which, naturally, dived. By this time we were standing at the side of the loch. The water was flat calm, there was no noise other than a few Curlew calling and then the Diver surfaced and gave it's melancholy call that echoed off the hills - what a magic moment. A Rock Pipit was gathering nesting material just beside us.
We headed off to see what other delights we could find. An Otter was soon on the list but while we were watching this 4 WT Eagles appeared over the trees behind us. It had to be the two birds we'd seen flying off plus two others. We lost the Otter but got a tip off about a pod of BN Dolphins - off we went. Luckily the Dolphins were still in the bay when we arrived so we watched them fishing for a while.
A trip back to the Otters gave us better views as they clambered over the rocks before heading back into the sea.
Another two Golden Eagle at lunchtime were a treat before we headed for the beach. I could hear two WT Eagles calling in unison and it wasn't long before we had them in our sights with another of the same species in the distance. A real treat was in store as we located a Magpie. It's a real rarity up here and a first for me on Mull.
We had a good finish to the day as we got stunning views of Lapwing and Golden Plover.
A small flock of Twite with a single Linnet amongst them didn't hang around for a photo but they were nice to see all the same. One of the Twite did pose in the sunshine as the others flew off.

2 comments:

Den said...

Wow what a day Bryan but a bit strange when a bird like a Magpie which lots of us on south coast call a pest is a highlight.Now if we could pop out for a bit of a ride and come across as many S E and a couple of Goldies that would be a highlight.How I hope we can make it up to Mull in September.

Den said...

Whoops thanks for answer to yesterdays question.