To see one eagle soaring across Scotland's skies is exciting enough, to sit and watch four is almost unimaginable, yet this is what a lucky group of visitors saw yesterday over West Ardnamurchan. The eagles were sea, or white-tailed eagles, reintroduced into western Scotland in 1975 after becoming extinct in the early 1900s.
That we have so many eagles now over West Ardnamurchan is a tribute to the success of the reintroductions on Mull to the south of us and Rum to the north. Today, Mull has 35 breeding pairs, and we're beginning to see them spread onto the mainland as they look for new territories.
As if watching four sea eagles flying wasn't treat enough, the eagles began to perform a series of aerial manoeuvres, perhaps part of a mating display. In this picture, one of the eagles is flying upside down, yet this bird is so big it's sometimes called a 'flying barn door'.
But the group witnessed, and were able to photograph, one of the consequences of the sea eagles' breeding success. One of the eagles was seen carrying what is almost certainly a lamb.
There have been reports from local farmers and crofters that the loss of lambs this spring has been the highest for years, and sea eagles are increasingly taking the blame. It may be that this lamb was already dead, but no-one can pretend that an eagle can't kill a lamb. Lambs are a farmer's livelihood, and the attachment between farmers and their livestock is strong. Any pleasure in watching these birds must be tempered by the knowledge that it comes at an emotional and financial price.
Many thanks to the anonymous photographer for allowing the Diary to post these pictures.
Beware of publishing such emotive anonymous material like this. It would really be so very easy to set a scenario up like this with dead lamb bait. Especially in an area frequented by so many eagles. Funny that the farmers started complaining right after the compensation scheme fizzled out. Some farmers would see the entire population of eagles and the enigmatic pine marten wiped out. Thankfully they are still in the minority. What is needed is balance and diversification not knee jerk, ill informed negative reaction.
ReplyDeletetotally agree isnt that what happens to the fox when half the time its the ravens and hoodies that do the crime and the fox cleans up
DeleteI think if you done your research properly you would find that the area this lamb was taken from had no compensation at all! There were only 2 areas allocated to receiving SNH money. Come the lamb sales a lot of crofters depending on this money to see their stock through the winter will have a severe shortfall with no SNH or Government subsidies!I Yes a balance is needed, but ill informed people with only one vision isn;t!
Deletehttps://forargyll.com/2014/03/sea-eagle-predation-raised-at-crofting-cross-party-group/
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?print=1&a=1445
Hi, absolutely not a set up I took the photographs over an hour period along with eleven university students, 4 holiday makers an estate worker and another member of the public. Im annonymous as I dont want journalist knocking on my door thats the only reason.
DeleteGreat pictures and proof that eagles do take lambs dead or alive. Its good to see these birds but its getting to a point now that there are too many of them and the crofters and farmers are suffering because of this.
ReplyDeleteThere is no question of this being 'set up'. Jon
ReplyDeletewhy were you there too ?
DeleteInteresting that it is being carried by the head - maybe that suggests the lamb was stood up when the Eagle picked it up rather than lying down dead on the ground. Thanks for publishing the pictures - as Sue says they are great birds to look at but there is a downside. I guess you could argue that the birds do more good for the local economy through increased tourism though.
ReplyDeleteHi Im the photographer, eagles will attack and carry prey by the head, this in no way suggests that the lamb was staning up when it was taken, look closely at the pictures and you will see that the lamb has already been predated on and much of it already eaten.
DeleteMagnificent creatures at the end of the day mother nature rules we are all part of the food chain of life
ReplyDeleteWhy did that person reply as Anonymous? were they frightened to put their name to their reply ?
ReplyDeleteThis is not a setup! if you look at how the lamb is being carried by the top of the skull this is how the eagle kills it by crushing its brain and if that doesn't kill it then it drops the lamb from height just to be sure.The pain for the lamb and the distress for the mother who's udder is bursting with milk this is an animal welfare issue .So get your facts right eagle lover.well done jon for highlighting this.
ReplyDeleteNo animal welfare issue, many predators take prey, does this make every situation an animal welfare issue if so then we need to rid the world of every predator in the sky or on the land, a big ask. It ios maybe not nice to see or think about but thats nature.
DeleteSea eagles are simply being scapegoated for lamb deaths in the absence of any evidence whatsoever. This photograph proves nothing, other than that a sea eagle will of course eat a lamb. It certainly doesn't prove that it has killed the lamb, as some on here are suggesting.
ReplyDeleteI was in Mull over the bank holiday weekend, and the place was littered with dead lambs - all visible whilst driving around the island. The husbandry of some farmers and crofters in such marginal land leaves a lot to be desired, and they would do well to get their house in order before lazily pointing the finger of blame elsewhere. It's a crassly opportunistic attempt to get a free cash handout from SNH whilst doing absolutely nothing for society or communities in return. Shameful.
Sorry you feel like this ,we all love different lives ,some cannot afford it.
DeleteMaz
Marginal land? Maybe the various crofters throughout Mull weren't aware they had dead lambs due to the busy time of year it is for them.....did you try to make any contact with the owners of them or did you carry on passing through? Tourists having no road sense on single track roads cause a lot of fatalities to sheep and lambs.....maybe if they informed the crofter/farmer it would ensure Mull wasn't 'littered' with dead lambs. "Shameful and a "free cash handout".......really!! you want to look more into this before assuming things.
DeleteWho keeps the hills in the wonderfully scenic state for the tourists? That would be the farmers. If the eagles kill off their profits then there won't be any countryside for eagle lovers to visit - it will revert to scrub and forest- then what will eagles eat?
ReplyDeleteNo no no, after the last ice age the land was covered in trees and scrub, then we (humans) came along and denuded it, then brought grazing animals in the thousands (remember the highland clearances) and this is why the land is the way it looks today not farmers keeping it in a wonderful scenic state, maye the right thing to do would be to let it return to its natural state, SNH would be on your side.
DeleteI think the eagle lover should crawl back into their cage in the city and leave management of the countryside to the people who have been doing it for generations ,their comments are totally uneducated! fact:.foxes and eagles kill lambs .Maybe eagle lover would give his/her bank details to a west coast hill farmer so that they can help themselves to 20% of his/her income whenever they feel like it.We would see then how upset eagle lover would get!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate there are conflicts between wildlife and farming, however this is a complex matter and deserves reasoned debate. White-tailed eagles are a protected species. It might be worth discussing these issues with The Ardnamurchan Tourist Association.
ReplyDelete'RSPB-commissioned research suggests that white-tailed eagle tourism generates £5million a year on The Isle of Mull. In total eco tourism is worth an estimated £276million to Scotland and supports over 2700 jobs' - source BBC Wildlife magazine, May 2014.
Would like to see the tourism support the local farmers and residentsxMaz
DeleteThe early photos don't show any prey items being carried. Can the photgrapher confirm that he saw the live kill being made? While no-one would deny that these top predators are capable of it, hours of research and study repeatedly shows that livestock prey is usually scavanged. Farmers, and particularly the more remote crofters, have a natural affinity to the land so it surprises me that they are resistant to attempts to restore the land (and fauna) to its original wild state. Predator numbers have been at artificially low numbers for decades due to "management" of the land. Surely losses to predators is an anticipated contingency for most animal keepers. It's a balancing act but it's beyond dispute that farmers have benefited substantially from heavy supression of predators (including years of raptor persecution by the less scrupulous) and the scales may just tip in the opposite direction, or at least it might seem that way, for a while.
ReplyDeleteHi, im the photographer and have only given Jon a selection of photos for publication they are not in any order, the first eagle to appear was the one carrying the lamb, the others appeared over a ten to fifteen minute period so dont read anything into the order of the pictures, we (as there were 18 people watching this) did not see any attack nor did I make any mention of seeing an attack or the lamb being picked up by the eagle.
Deletehttp://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/nfus-publishes-its-proposed-sea-eagle-action-plan/
ReplyDeleteits quite obvious the lamb was already dead and part of it eaten when this person took the photograph. dont just assume it killed it
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for all the comments. It's a subject which will continue to cause much debate because there's so much to be said on both sides, but I think there's enough here, so I'm closing this post to any further comments. Jon
ReplyDelete