In the company of White-tailed Eagles

Size 70-90 cm: weight 4.3-5.5 kg. I have been in many hides but this was my first and so far only paid “hide”. In fact it was a boat trip to see White-tailed Eagles. Whilst I am a strong advocate of serendipidous bird watching – and I have never been disappointed with whatever wildlife happens to find itself in front of my camera – it has to be said this was one of my best birding experiences and one which I would not have missed for the world.

We were staying on the Killiechronan campsite on Mull and the boat trip was with Mull Charters, setting off from Ulva Ferry pier. The trip lasted for 3 hours during which we were treated to spectacular sightings of a couple of Eagles. Some way from shore, the captain would throw out a single fish and this would be seen by an Eagle on shore. It was breath-taking to see the Eagle take off, fly nonchalantly towards the fish, check out what was happening and then gently pluck the fish from the sea with its great talons and fly back to land.

One of the Eagles came so close to the boat that I had to bring the zoom right in. Great to be close to the bird instead of the bird being just too far away for a change. Surprising how dark the sky becomes when the Eagle is flying overhead.

You don’t have to go on a boat trip to see the Eagles on Mull. We had good sightings of them elsewhere on the island. Here are a couple of images of Eagles near their nests. The first is an image of a pair and is of one Eagle greeting its’ mate. We had been watching when the first started calling to its’ mate and watched as the second flew in to take its’ turn on the nest.

This second picture above is another Eagle just leaving the nest. The first picture was taken from a road and the second from a public car park, both some distance away from the nests.