Within the wilds of the Morvern Peninsula in the West of Scotland, our Rahoy Hills Wildlife Reserve is home to a huge array of wildlife including from red deer to rich arctic-alpine flora. One of the highlights is 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.

25 March, I parked up and set off, thinking of the long walk ahead, picturing it. At the start it always seems such a long way, which it is, but you just put one foot in front of the other and you get there. You know that in 6 or 7 hours time you’ll be thinking of all that way you walked, once again. As I left the track to head up into the hills, four whooper swans flew north, I wondered if they would stop off at the hill lochs, as sometimes family groups do. That’s one good thing about the long walk through the reserve; you get to gather some good records on the way. Last year I flushed a short eared owl, which was a new record for the reserve, and very nice to see. A little further on near a very beautiful hill loch tucked away among lovely granite torrs, I saw a female merlin, not often seen and always very special. At that lochan today were 5 goosander, a drake with four females and juveniles, and a drake mallard. After a few moments the goosander left. I hate that…that they left because of me, even though I was not that close to the water. They’re not nesting yet though, and don’t on that high lochan. Otherwise, I only encountered a few pipits and skylark, already on territory.

Crossing the last dip before the final rise I find exposed tree roots in a peat hag, a sign there were trees this high up. Birch, I think. I picture how it must have looked back then, and how it could again, and hopefully will one day. Finally, I cross the furthest ridge, but have to keep going until I’m far enough along to enable me to look back at the side of the mountain that the eagle’s nest is on. Eventually, the crag comes into view, so I find a sheltered spot…not easy on this exposed hillside, and set up the tripod and telescope. I train it on the cliff and have to relocate the nest, as it’s a year since I last looked at it, but it was easy to spot, because sure enough on it sat an eagle. I can only see its head above the rim of the nest, which is lined with pale dead and dry molinia grass, which also makes it stand out. Even though I am over 2km away and plenty far enough away for the birds not to be bothered by me, I still feel uneasy, and so once I am 100% certain there is a bird sitting, I pack up the scope again and leave. Using a 45x eye piece on my scope has transformed my eagle monitoring. I used to only have a 30x, and would often spend ages staring through it…is that an eagles head, or just lichen on the rocks. With the extra power of the 45x it’s much easier to see a bird.

I go a different way back, down a very beautiful hillside that I love very much, passing broken crags and bluffs topped with heather and bilberry, and isolated mountain ash or hollies; further remnants of what once was. It’s so wild up here, I don’t think anyone ever comes up here. Has anyone ever been here? Several golden plover whistle at my passing, they’re not long back. I hope they have a better summer of weather on the hill this year than last, which was so wet, windy and cold.

I reach the track and its easy from there on. It’s nice after being on the hill, to find yourself among trees again, oaks, as wonderful as the hills are. They would be more wonderful if those trees grew again where they once did. One of my favourite places is where woodland is still found high on the hill, where the trees thin out, the high wood edge.

A few days later, during a couple of days of rain and awful hail showers and cold winds, I think of the eagles up at their nest. I guess a couple of days of bad weather in the spring is nothing compared to what they endure during the long winter months. I often think of birds when the weather is really bad, and at night, when winter storms are raging and its absolutely pouring rain and cold, for hour after hour sometimes for days at a time. How do they endure those conditions? How do they hunt? Where do they roost to get out of the worst of it?

Eagle secrets.