One fine morning
On a fine morning recently, I took my morning coffee out onto our patio with my telescope to see what I could see. I immediately spotted my resident family of porpoises foraging in calm waters around the deep hole near MacQuarries rock between Ulva Ferry and Samalan island, the low-lying islet east of Inch Kenneth. This is their favoured foraging spot it would appear, and I can see them there, mostly alone but occasionally with others, nearly every day that it is calm enough to spot them.
I soon spotted a couple of sea eagles, more correctly known as white tailed eagles, sitting on the west end of Samalan - what looked like an adult with a youngster. I assumed this was the same couple I had seen the day before and watched them play in flight, talon clasping. I had presumed it was one of our local adults with their 2021 youngster.
However, as I looked on, a second adult came flying in towards them from the south side of Ulva and was flying in an aggressive manner, fast and direct. The adult that was on the island leapt up and flew towards the oncoming attack and the two locked talons in mid-air, cartwheeling the 10 metres or so out of the sky and into the sea.
The adult from the rock lifted out of the water almost immediately as the youngster, still perched on the island, took off and flew out over the other adult still lying in the water and swooped at it a little. I could now tell that this was a sub-adult with a tail starting to turn white. So, it was likely to be another pair moving in on the Ulva pair. The youngster returned to perch on the island with its more mature mate and shortly after, the bird still in the sea also lifted out of the water and returned to the south side of Ulva.
I have been lucky enough to see eagles talon clasping and cartwheeling on many an occasion in both play, courtship and aggression, but this was the first time I had seen them end up in the drink. Quite the drama to wake up to. It will be interesting to keep watch on these birds now as they start to build their nests for the 2023 season to see what happens and where. In 2022 our local pair built a new nest and laid eggs. Unfortunately, probably due to spring storms, the birds failed and deserted their new nest fairly early in the season. I had watched them building their nest though and for the first time had witnessed the adults actually tearing branches off trees to carry back for nesting material. Previously, I had only ever seen eagles, both golden and white tailed, take branches from the ground for nesting material. I watched the whole process last year, from large branches to smaller branches and eventually to the clumps of turf and grass that they were ripping up from a nearby field to line their nest.
I know a number of youngsters died, apparently of avian flu, in 2022 and many are concerned how things may fair this year. So it is somewhat nice to see extra birds turning up and fighting over territory. Hopefully, the 2023 sea eagle season will go better than the previous and we will see young eagles produced again from our local pair.
A recent sighting of “The Boys”, the legendary killer whales, John Coe and Aquarius by John O Groats, the first record of them since September, is great news and my eyes will be peeled for their massive sail-like dorsals in the coming weeks. Have fun out there with nature folks as the first signs of spring arrive. My favourite season of the year...new life exploding.
▮ Daniel Brooks is a wildlife guide, adventure seeker, conservation campaigner, forager, bushcrafter, rewilder and father of four. His website is mullman.co.uk