In the wilds of the Morvern Peninsula in the West of Scotland, our Rahoy Hills Wildlife Reserve is home to a huge array of wildlife, from red deer to rich arctic-alpine flora. Among the highlights are the golden eagles which nest and breed on the reserve. In this series of blogs, we hear from Steve Hardy, Ranger on Rahoy Hills, about his experience monitoring the eagle nest this year.  

A priority for me in late winter / early spring is to see how our golden eagles are doing and to ascertain whether they’re going to make a breeding attempt. This can be relatively straight forward, or the birds can give me the run around. Last year on my first eagle outing, I put the scope on a ledge I had seen the female checking out after failing the previous year, and there was the female on a new nest. In other years they can look like they are going to breed, being present at nesting cliffs, refurbishing nests, displaying, but then don’t actually breed. Or it might look like they’re going to use a particular nest, then disappear and I’ll find them on a another nest. How would things play out this season?

Firstly, I have to establish whether the pair is still on territory after a winter, and on 2 March, sure enough I found the pair perched on a favoured knoll. I scoped the nests that I could see and none appeared to have been added to or built up. Hmmm, did that mean they were going to be on the nest that I couldn’t see, the furthest away one? Or were they going to breed at all this year? I would find out over the next few weeks.

I was next out to put a watch in on 16 March, by which time they could have laid. Again none of the nests I could see had been built up. It’s usually pretty obvious when nests have been refurbished, but they all looked like they hadn’t. It was now a case of watching the birds to see what they tell me. At this stage they could have laid, so if I see a single bird, it could mean the other one is sitting on a nest. Later though, I saw the pair together, circling over the shoulder of a hill, gaining height and gliding high to the east. Not on the go yet then. There was still time for them to lay, but by mid-March I would normally expect them to be on eggs, so my thoughts were that they would not be making a breeding attempt this year. The next visit should tell me one way or the other.

23 March, and I found a single bird perched on the same favourite knoll as on 2 March.  It flew north and was lost to sight beyond a ridge. Forty-five minutes later again a single bird above that same ridge, this time dip-displaying. This is when a bird beats its wings and climbs steeply upwards, then closes its wings and falls in a steep dive, opening its wings again it beats them to climb skyward again, repeating this in a rollercoaster fashion, up and down, up and down. This is a bird marking its territory. Likely it would have seen another eagle somewhere, and was showing it that this was his mountain, as it was likely to be the male displaying. It returned to the same knoll. Where was the other bird? The female? After ten minutes he was off again, and again dip-displayed. He then descended on the north side of the ridge. I know what’s round there…their furthest away nest. Were they on the go after all? I would have to make the long trek to find out.