A fairly busy last week or two here in The Highlands….
Starting off with a report from a local farmer that a young owl had apparently fallen from its nest. My son (who is a trainee ringer) and I went over to find a young and downy tawny on the ground - and a local footpath, and far too young to be on the floor of the wood for the night, particularly in the heavy rain that was prevalent. It is doubtful with the weather and predators that he would have survived the night. We located the nest, and we called a qualified and licensed ringer down to assist. He was with us in a few minutes, and having rung the escapee and its sibling put them safely back in the nest.
That was followed by a trip to the west coast. On a quiet road we spotted a golden eagle soaring ahead.
We stopped to watch, and interestingly (particularly at this time of year) he went into a display flight, climbing and diving roller-coaster style, and into the face of a nearby cliff. We found a layby nearby and with a ‘scope managed to locate the female on a nest, with the male nearby. He left the crag, soared again - to quite a height, and though it was only just visible, the cause of his display flight became apparent, when he engaged another eagle. There was a bit of cartwheeling and diving, nothing too aggressive, but the intruding bird was eventually driven away, glided off into the distance and the resident male returned.
(This shot above, which has been cropped, shows the male flying past the nest, which is to the very top left on the tree trunk - you can just make out the head of the female, and, .... Just a note: These photos were taken from the car in a layby on a public road, using a 400mm lens)
A couple of days later, it was a dawn trip to a local fishing loch, where I had obtained permission from the owner to try and photograph osprey. It was only my first visit, but 3 or 4 osprey came in – no photos of any splash-downs of note (too distant) but some half-decent flight photos…
Then, two days ago, it was time to check our local barn owls (under licence) On a check a few weeks back we had the owl sitting on 5 eggs. We now have 5 healthy-looking chicks – very small, but very vocal with such a loud hissing from these little scraps of life.
We installed this box in 2004. The barn was already used by barn owls, and for a couple of years, all we found were the remains of dead chicks. The nest was in some old machinery on the floor of the barn and undoubtedly vulnerable to foxes, pine marten and other predators. Each year since (apart from 2007 when we were slightly late checking, and they had an early brood) we have rung the offspring, and presuming we ring this latest clutch some time next month, this will make 17. The box was made and donated by the pupils of a local school. They get feedback, so they too will be very pleased. All being well, I’ll post another photo when we go to ring them.
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