Lesser Black-backed Gull mobbing White-tailed Eagle

An adult Lesser Black-backed Gull is mobbing a (probable 2CY) White-tailed Eagle last week. Life in the Uists must be a constant barrage of mobbing from gulls and shelduck for these massive eagles.

Great Black-backed Gull mobbing White-tailed Eagle

I have posted an aerial shot on this theme previously, taken in Harris in 2011, so I thought I would add a North Uist shot from 2012. Spectacular stuff, even when watched from a distance.

White-tailed Eagle flight shots

Regular readers of this blog (Hi, Mum, Stephen and Joseph!) will realise that I am particularly keen on raptors, so the recent trip to the Outer Hebrides had me twitching with excitement at the prospect of lots of sightings of all things hooky-beaked.

As we headed off along the Edinburgh bypass I was already over-enthusiastically pointing out Common Buzzards to the family. "You know, I have seen quite a few Buzzards already", was G's response. Fair enough, since they do pass over the garden every day, and I do have a slight tendency to point them out every single time... even when they are pretty high up...

"Yeah, well I just thought it would be a good idea to give you all a quick Buzzard refresher course since we are going to see lots of Eagles in the Outer Hebrides", I added, lamely trying to think up some logical explanation for my involuntary birder outbursts.

A few minutes later, it was G who broke the silence. "Well that one looks pretty big!" I had also seen it and was driving in a more slack-jawed manner, staring disbelievingly upwards through the windscreen. "It's an Eagle! An immature White-tailed Eagle!" We were barely off the ring-road and heading up the M9, but here above the motorway was one of the birds that we were traveling hundreds of miles to see. I craned my neck and then fleetingly made use of the glass roof - one of the reasons I bought the car was the idea that nice big birds up above would be visible. "Have you seen it?", I asked the kids. "Yes", they chorused, somehow managing to look up and keep Mario on track on their Nintendos.

Wow! Of course, it will be an individual from the wave of recent releases for the East coast reintroduction scheme... (not sure it would have been possible to see any wing-tags under the circumstances). Actually I don't think that matters much because it was really cool!

Here are a few shots, not of the Lothian bird, which funnily enough I did not photograph, but of birds seen in the Outer Hebrides as intended. First some shots of an adult, accompanied by some very irritated Shelduck.

Here are some shots of an immature - it has more bulging secondary feathers and a longer darker tail than the adult. Hopefully these shots get across some of the colossal feeling of this species.

Finally, to give a slightly better idea of scale, here is this immature White-tailed Eagle being mobbed by a Great Black-backed Gull.

 

Cartwheeling White-tailed Eagles

Very distant record shots of a behaviour that I have long wanted to witness - mutual talon-locking and aerial cartwheeling in White-tailed Eagles. I photographed these immature birds in the Outer Hebrides a week or so ago. After a bout of calling and rapid flying from a single bird another individual appeared and then quite unexpectedly the birds locked and cartwheeled rapidly downwards. The cartwheeling lasted only a couple of seconds and I was lucky to grab these shots. Next time, overhead please...

Can you see eagles?

We popped into Loch Leven, RSPB, today. A great location to let the kids get on their bikes along the new multi-user path, while we had a nice stroll with me occasionally raising my binoculars. Actually, with the current weather, the cycling could have turned into carnage, with frequent partings of company of bike and child due to black ice. In true fatherly fashion, I decided to show the upstarts how we cycled on icy paths in my day. Needless to say I was spreadeagled within seconds - I must have hit a particularly slippy bit, I explained.

As far as the family are concerned, the best thing about Loch Leven is undoubtedly the cafe - the staff are friendly and the food is hearty. But we're meant to be birdwatching, I'll whine and fail to generate interest in the tiny specks visible out on the loch...

Today the kids were forced to peer at these White-tailed Eagles out on the frozen ice of Loch Leven. These two birds (see third shot, which also includes two Carrion Crows for scale), are part of the East of Scotland reintroduction scheme for this species and since they are wearing turquoise wing tags must have been part of the 2008 release. In the shot above, four Mute Swans are also included for scale...

Well, maybe if I do get my kids interested in birding at this site, they'll turn out to have incredible ID skills, able to name any bird no matter how tiny the image appears on their retinas.