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RETURN OF THE NATIVE A century ago, the last UK white-tailed eagle was shot in . But now they’re back. RSPB Mull Officer Dave Sexton, who’s worked with the birds for decades, traces their story back from extinction.

t always brings a lump to my throat. The thought Sadly, no new mate would ever appear over that of the last known white-tailed eagle in the UK in horizon. All over Scotland sea eagles were being 1918 sitting atop a wild, wind-swept cliff in Shetland ruthlessly persecuted – shot, poisoned, collected searching in vain for its mate. Indeed, looking for any and their eggs stolen. From what had once been the other of its kind. What must it be like for the last one commonest, most widespread eagle in the UK, Iof a species? They must feed and preen as normal of nesting the length and breadth of the kingdom from course, but for many hours a day, sometimes for years the Isle of Wight to the far Northern Isles, its on end, they sit alone and watch… and hope. population was reduced to a tiny remnant. This last sea eagle had been widowed eight years A few years previously in 1916, the last recorded previously in 1910, but returned faithfully every year breeding attempt had already occurred on Skye. after to the eyrie where they’d raised their chicks Doubtless a few immature birds – and even some

Photo: Martin Keivers/Mull Charters Photo: Martin together, to “gaze out over the wide horizon and wait”. unpaired adults – still drifted, lost and aimless

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This 1985 photo shows the first white-tailed eagle chick to fledge in EAGLE the UK for 70 years. ECOLOGY

LIFESPAN NEST 20–25 years, sometimes older. The Large, stick-built nest lined with oldest pair on Mull disappeared in grasses, on trees, crags, cliffs or 2016 aged 37 (estimated). They occasionally on the ground. Nests pair for life, but will re-pair if one are tended year-round in the partner is lost. They mature at five run-up to egg laying in March. years old when they develop the Incubation of one or two (rarely yellow beak, pale head and white three) eggs lasts 38 days and both George Edward Lodge tail of an adult. painted the last male and female do their share. known eagle in Chicks hatch a day or two apart this 1915 work. and are more tolerant of each other DIET in the nest compared to golden Mainly seabirds like gulls, fulmars eagles. Chicks are fully grown at 10 along the remotest sea cliffs, but for and auks – but also geese, crows, weeks but often don’t fledge until all intents and purposes, sea eagles were ravens and other birds; mammals 12 weeks. They may remain with already extinct as a breeding species. such as rabbits and hares; fish and their parents through the autumn What a desperately sad and shameful carrion such as deer and sheep (see and sometimes the winter. period in our history. below) in the hills, and cetaceans Folklore has it that this last UK sea eagle and seals on the shoreline, was a female and an albino. There’s a particularly in winter. They’ll poignant black-and-white photograph scavenge fish off otters and chase taken sometime between 1912 and 1918 by gannets, gulls and herons to get Harry Brewster Macpherson who travelled them to cough up their supper to Shetland from Strathspey to record this (known as klepto-parasitism). remarkable bird for posterity. It remains the only known photograph of an original British sea eagle ever taken. Harry might not have realised then that the bird FURTHER READING sheltering on the cliff below him was Find out more about POPULATION probably the last of its kind. UK white-tails in A Saga There are still less than 120 pairs of white-tailed eagles in There’s an equally moving account by of Sea Eagles by John the wildlife artist, naturalist, falconer and Love (Whittles the UK, all in Scotland, so they remain vulnerable. indeed taxidermist George Edward Lodge Publishing, 2013) or However, population growth is strong, with a target of who also went on an expedition in 1914 to Dave Sexton’s own book over 200 pairs by 2025. The main threats come from paint this bird. In his diary from 28–30 Birdwatching on Mull nest-site disturbance such as from egg collecting and and Iona (Brown & irresponsible photography or birdwatching behaviour. June of that year he noted: Whittaker, 2011). “North Roe. Went to where the sea eagle Also from direct persecution such as poisoning and lives. We saw her from a long way off, like shooting to protect livestock and game-rearing interests. a white spot on the cliff below the old nest, which is still there on a 500-foot cliff. She was very wild and flew off and away and hours, but was then too cold and cramped view of her as she passed across my crack wings were “light brown”. While EAGLES IN A FARMING LANDSCAPE we did not see her again. to continue so went home in the rain. opening at a distance of about a hundred undoubtedly striking in appearance, this Predation by eagles is one of many environmental factors which can, at times, have “She is quite white, and looks as white as “Very windy. Went again to see the eagle. yards. I noticed that her primaries were not sea eagle was more likely to have been an effect on some hill farms. We know small numbers of lambs can be predated by a gull while flying. This shelter was a big She was not in sight when we white but appeared to be light brown.” leucistic. Furthermore, this sad, lonely individual eagles in some years. We recognise the impact this has on the farmers crack or chimney with a split in the side got there. It was too windy to paint so Despite the terrible weather and the female was almost certainly a sad, lonely involved so, with our partners in Scottish Natural Heritage and the National Farmers opposite the entrance, from where we I made a pencil sketch of the rock in the fleeting glimpses of this apparition, George male. Research by John Love who, with Union Scotland, RSPB staff are part of national and local sea eagle stakeholder groups could look across to the nest, which was immediate vicinity of the nest. While so Lodge did manage to get what he needed Scottish Natural Heritage, helped pioneer seeking practical solutions to any issues which might arise. Farmers affected are about 100 feet from the top of the cliff. engaged a hoodie crow continually mobbed and noted, “I got material for a picture and the successful reintroduction of sea eagles eligible to join SNH’s Sea Eagle Management Scheme which offers funding for positive I spent a time here making an oil sketch something round the corner where we had the wild weather is eminently in keeping to Scotland beginning in the 1970s, has management initiatives. In addition a Sea Eagle Action Plan has been produced which of the nesting cliff; but it was a horrid no view, as it was shut in by the rocks on with the subject.” shown that early local reports of this includes field trials of deterrents around lambing parks and on the open hill. Farmers cramped position and a bad afternoon, our left. Meade-Waldo and Ogilvie-Grant But like all folklore, it’s sometimes rather bird refer to it as being “much smaller” and landowners have been essential to the success of the reintroduction project since blowing half a gale of wind and driving therefore went out to the top of the cliffs to more fiction than fact! In truth, the bird than its original mate. Sea eagle males the beginning and that vital contribution is gratefully acknowledged by all partners. thick drizzling mist across. I was fairly well investigate, and out flew the eagle mobbed probably wasn’t an albino. As Lodge states, are noticeably smaller than females.

Photo: Chris Gomershall. Painting and written material © reproduced with permission of the George Edward Lodge Trust Lodge material © reproduced with permission of the George Edward and written Photo: Chris Gomershall. Painting sheltered and worked for one and a half by two or three hoodies. I had a very short he noticed the primary feathers on the And just one final bit of mythbusting! Photo Stock Alamy Photos: Mark Hamblin, Laurie Campbell (both rspb-images.com);

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The UK’s last endemic CELEBRITY WHITE- sea eagle was killed on Shetland EAGLES TAILS Shetland in 1918. 1 Blondie ON THE Blondie was the all-time Wingspan: 2.5 m poster girl for UK sea eagles. MAP She was brought from Norway in the late 1970s, released on Rum, settled on Outer Hebrides currently Fair Isle Mull and became the mother of the first has one third of the chick to hatch in 1985 (pictured). She and Scottish population, with her mate produced many chicks in her the highest concentration lifetime; her dynasty continues today. along the East Lewis 2 Skye and Frisa coastline. Join the RSPB’s Their nest on Mull hosted Eagle Walk in North the first live broadcast of Harris, follow the Outer in 2005, and Hebrides Bird of Prey Trail Hoy went on to star in many (hebridesbirdofpreytrail. TV productions and films. co.uk) or join a local Frisa was one of Blondie’s boat trip. chicks in 1992 and is also a striking bird to watch, and a great mum to the pair’s many chicks. “As they all vanished behind a 3 Itchy and Scratchy Skye and Frisa’s chicks ridge, we looked at each other in in the Springwatch nest, Outer Hebrides named by Simon King disbelief; we’d just witnessed and Dervaig Primary School. They had a cult conservation history. Sea eagles following online and on Site of the last “The Watches”. Scratchy was last seen in known nest site 2008 but Itchy paired up with a female of a native UK Skye: The RSPB runs an really were back home at last.” and is still breeding on an island in the sea eagle. eagle hide on the FCS RSPB Loch southern Hebrides. site at Kylerhea, an of Strathbeg This widowed, single, leucistic male Sandeman, they made the first attempt to inspiring location to 4 Mara see sea eagles in action probably wasn’t the absolute last of his do just that by releasing three Norwegian Skye kind! Reliable reports persisted into the sea eagles at Glen Etive in Argyll in 1959. In 2008, Skye and Frisa’s catching fish and 1920s and even occasional later ones, While one of the three survived for at least chick Mara became the interacting with other first UK sea eagle to be wildlife including otters, sometimes of a pair but normally of lone a year before being caught in a fox trap, RSPB Insh East coast: A pair of sea fitted with a satellite tag. gulls, seals and herons. birds roaming the Highlands and Islands. another ended up in captivity and the fate Marshes eagles can often be seen We followed his progress Visit bit.ly/2zzEltf However, for now, our almost white of the third remains unknown. fishing around Tentsmuir for five years until he settled on the single bird in Shetland is the last proven, In 1968, a further four immature sea Point and perched on mainland and started a family. His tag Isle of documented individual. Despite three eagles from Norway were released on posts on the Eden fell off as planned, and was retrieved after Mull: Award-winning Mull decades of protection by islanders and Fair Isle involving another RSPB legend, Rum Estuary in Fife. They also his life story was plotted by satellite. 1 Eagle Watch offers guided RSPB Watcher James Hay, even this bird Roy Dennis. appear on the RSPB He’ll go down in the history books like walks and summer nest was eventually shot in 1918 by “an old While both releases involved too few reserves at Insh his grandmother, Blondie. viewing in partnership with man” no longer able to ignore financial birds to be ultimately successful, important 4 Marshes, Loch Leven local community projects, inducements offered by collectors. lessons were learned for the next “official” and Loch of Strathbeg. 5 Kellan mulleaglewatch.com. Effectively this was the end for sea eagles reintroduction attempt on the Isle of Rum Fledged from another nest 2 Other wildlife tours also in the UK. Even if a few lone immatures starting in 1975. This was to become the in 2010 Kellen was found encounter sea eagles regularly. Dundee continued to haunt the wider landscape, first of three phases of releasing birds gifted by a farmer, unable to fly. they too will have eventually been killed. by Norway to the west and east coasts of He was rescued and nursed Isle of But fast-forward 40 years and both Scotland, concluding in 2012. back to health by the Mull 5 East Coast (Fife) amateur and professional conservationists The detail and successful results of this Scottish SPCA. Following were already trying to realise the dream of translocation project are well documented operations to save his injured wing and a RSPB bringing this native bird back. RSPB elsewhere, but it was the first tantalising lengthy recuperation he had five more MAP KEY Loch Leven Scotland Director George Waterston, so reports of sea eagles wandering away from years in the wild before sadly being Where to see eagles Loch Etive famous for his work with ospreys, also had Rum, and on to the nearby , found dead in 2015, possibly following a Reintroduction sites 3 a long held ambition to bring sea eagles which first gripped my fascination (my dispute with another eagle.

Photos: Kevin Sawford (rspb-images.com); Chris Gomershall; Mike Langman; Debby Thorne; Iain Erskine; Gordon Buchanan/BBC; John McAvoy/SSPCA John Iain Erskine; Gordon Buchanan/BBC; Thorne; Langman; Debby (rspb-images.com); Chris Gomershall; Mike Sawford Photos: Kevin home. Indeed, with his cousin Pat family might say obsession!). I was on a Map illustration: Evelyn Sinclair. Archive photo (taken c.1912-1918): HB Macpherson, courtesy of the late Hon D Weir, the Macpherson family, Balavil and John Love and John Balavil the Macpherson family, Weir, HB Macpherson, courtesy of the late Hon D photo (taken c.1912-1918): Archive Sinclair. Map illustration: Evelyn

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“This very special, lone young eagle would also gaze out over the wide horizon and soar over distant mountains.”

birding trip to Mull with my friend Eric eagles hatched and fledged the first Unlike the lonely old sea eagle in Kidd in May 1980. We’d already seen our wild-bred chick in the UK for some 70 Shetland in 1918, this very special, lone first ever otter in the wild and had watched years. That year we all witnessed wildlife young eagle would also go on to “gaze golden eagles displaying. Then, on a conservation history (along with some out over the wide horizon and wait”, late-afternoon drive along the shore road heartache and near heart failure along the but he would see many others of his kind by Loch Spelve, we screeched to a halt as way). One of the two chicks that hatched soaring over distant mountains, their we’d both simultaneously glimpsed the died after a few weeks so we were down to echoing calls drifting towards him on massive, broad, plank-like wings of an one surviving chick. The pressure was on. the sea breeze. Tùsanaich a’ Tilleadh – adult sea eagle flapping hard across the It, too, very nearly didn’t survive long after Iolaire sùil na grèine: the return of the loch, being pursued by a mob of angry fledging. Late one gloomy August day, we native – the eagle with the sunlit eye hooded crows. watched in horror as it ditched in the was underway. n As they all vanished behind a ridge, we middle of a choppy grey loch and as dusk looked at each other in disbelief; we’d just fell, appeared to slip beneath the waves. witnessed conservation history. Sea eagles Sick with anguish and anxiety, we returned really were back home at last. Soon after, at dawn to retrieve what we knew would be Dave Sexton’s first visit to I began to pester long-suffering Richard a body. But there, sitting on the shoreline Mull on a 1978 school trip Porter and Mike Everett in the Species with his proud parents, was our chick; sparked a lifelong love affair with the island and its wildlife, Protection Department at RSPB HQ rather soggy but otherwise none the worse particularly the white-tailed eagles. After begging for a job to protect the first known for his unexpected baptism in a cold Mull bagging his dream job with the RSPB on nesting attempts. loch. Unable to contain my joy at finding Mull in 1984/5, he went on to become My persistence eventually paid off and him alive and well, I fell back into the dew Head of Reserves for RSPB Scotland I was given a contract in 1984 to watch over soaked heather with the early morning sun before the magnetic magic of Mull lured an active nest on Mull with my colleague on my face and wept tears of utter relief. him back again in 2003. Mike Madders and boss Roger Broad. History was not to be made that year, JOINING FORCES FOR EAGLES however, as the single infertile egg failed to Sea eagles wouldn’t be back in Scotland without many people, organisations and hatch. Undeterred, we were both back the governments working together. It’s not possible to thank everyone, but special thanks following year and joined by Keith Morton should go to Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish and Norwegian Governments. to watch over the same pair, which were Forestry Commission Scotland, Police Scotland, Scottish SPCA, private landowners trying again. and farmers also played a vital role in the reintroduction. Today, much of the monitoring Finally, 1985 was to be their year. is done by volunteers and the Scottish Raptor Study Groups, while others play a key role in helping people see the eagles, including VisitScotland, NW Mull Community And ours! This pioneering pair of Woodland, SW Mull & Iona Development and the Mull & Iona Community Trust.

Photo: Andrew Marshall (rspb-images.com) Andrew Photo: Norwegian – now Scottish – white-tailed

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