Massacre

It's been a good breeding year for Ardnamurchan's small birds. During the summer and early autumn the resulting hordes were eating their way through half a ton of peanuts every day: in fact, there was some concern that we might be breeding some new species of flightless birds. Then, as happens every autumn, a sparrow hawk appeared and, in the massacre that followed, most of the fledglings disappeared, leaving a rump population to survive the gales of winter.

This is a wonderful place for raptors. Golden eagles are a common sight, and we have resident buzzards, hen harriers, kestrels, peregrines, sparrow hawks, and reports of hobbies and red kites. But by far the most impressive are the sea eagles which come across here from Mull and Rhum. We see them at infrequent intervals then, often in the first months of the new year, we'll see them regularly. They've been described as flying barn doors, which is an apt description until they attack: we had the spectacle of watching one harrying a greylag goose in Kilchoan Bay, when the eagle's acrobatics were impressive. The goose had damaged a wing and could only defend itself by plunging underwater each time the eagle swooped. In the end the eagle gave up and flew away.