Eagle fest

Weather: Started with unforecasted rain and no wind, but rain eased to a cloudy and moderate breeze for the rest of the day.

Theo's tour:

An Adult White-tailed Eagle flew across the front of the van just outside Tobermory setting a precedent for the day! Throughout the morning on the coast there were White-tailed Eagles everywhere, perched in the trees, fishing and chasing each other around the peaks. Both species of Seal were more lazy on their usual skerries. 4 Slavonian Grebes and a Great-northern Diver were out in the loch. An exceptionally low tide revealed new reefs offshore where an Otter was out fishing on sat up on the usually well submerged kelp reefs. Over lunch, we spotted a pod of 6 Harbour Porpoise.

A Juvenile WTE flying overhead

Into the mountains for the afternoon, quickly after getting out of the car we spotted 2 Adult Golden Eagles over the near ridge, shortly joined by 3 immature WTE's which duly started tussling in the air. Several Buzzards were around, and a male Hen Harrier flew through at height. Over a cup of tea, a 4th WTE flew over a more distant peak and 2 more Golden Eagles were on the hills behind.

Back to the grass moorland we watched a sizeable hareem of Red Deer attended by a big stag. A Juvenile Hen Harrier was quartering the grassland, while Buzzards and a Kestrel hovered over the skyline. Another distant male Hen Harrier was over the hills.

To finish we stopped in at another coastal spot to see the wading birds, scanning the offshore skerries Theo spotted a pile of Otters asleep, a female and her 2 cubs, they woke up being pushed by the tide and ambled along the tops of the islands giving great scope views, a fine way to end the day!