Majestic raptor adventure a bucket list first
OH hang on, let me put the laptop down. There is a large shape in the sky and with my peripheral vision being second to none I instinctively know that it is a golden eagle and because of the size probably a female.
What an absolute beauty and the real Monarch of the Glen.
I know that the painter Landseer christened a red deer stag as the King with his, well, majestic portrait of a many pointed red deer in a Highland Glen, but you only need to watch this huge bird of prey dominate the sky prospecting for some unsuspecting rabbit.
In my time I have seen many eagles, including the even larger white tailed eagle, and their hunting techniques are beyond comparison.
With the former I watched one drop from the sky and head for a group of eider ducks a matter of feet above the icy waters like a low flying Lancaster Bomber near the Isle of Mull.
The under-carriage came down and the monstrous yellow talons clicked into place and lifted the duck from off the top of a wave.
I have a feeling that the white tail would not have been able to take off into the air with the weight of the eider, but it did manage to scoot towards the shoreline a hundred metres away.
Think Barnes Wallace with a full payload ready to bounce across the Atlantic if the eagle let go.
Sorry there were no bombs-away that morning and the eagle soon landed and dragged the bird away from the shore with one leg looking for all the world like Long John Silver limping up the shingle dragging his treasure.
Excuse the human references but that is what came to mind on the day.
As for my ultimate golden eagle kill, favourite seems a little inappropriate considering the prey, but this eagle was above Inverness in a total white out.
The bird came into view, like today, over the top of the top of the forest, scattering a couple of turkey-sized capercaillie which were so big that they needed to drop two feet towards the floor before making a straight flight across the clearing, think large RAF transport planes with bellies that big that they appear unlikely to be able to lift into the sky, and these giant grouse juggernauts were followed by a small flock of redpolls like drops of blood on a sheet.
Meanwhile the eagle turned on an old sixpence and seemed to be heading into the pure white hillside with no prey in sight.
Silly me, the bird had probably seen the eyes of a pure white mountain hare which was sitting tight in the snow.
It was only when the eagle dropped like a stone and then swung out her undercarriage like the white tail, but this time before any hit, the hare, like a jack in the box, leapt into the air, landed nearby and ran off in the direction of cover.
The eagle was left to regain her composure, shake off the snow and lift into the air again as the glen once more became still.
Five minutes later, the scene was repeated with a remarkable difference, the eagle had obviously followed the run of the hare and she stooped again with a point to prove.
The hare, once again leapt into the air, but this time the eagle was ‘canny’ and without touching the white stuff she turned upside down, thrust her talons in the air and caught the hare in mid air. Dinner was served and it was two famous firsts for this humble observer, the escape technique and the fast-learning eagle’s immediate adaptation were a couple more famous firsts to tick off in my notebook.