Today we were to have a boat trip that had been arranged by Dougie the week before our holiday. The idea behind the trip was to try and get as close as possible to a pair of White Tailed Eagles. The captain does this by throwing out a couple of fish knowing that this is easy feed for the Eagles. The Eagles come as close as 15 feet on a good day. To put it mildly we were a teensy weensy bit excited. But, when we got up (again to Dougies magnificent cooking) our spirits werent exactly high. It was lashing down, and had been all night. To say it didnt look promising was a slight understatement. But still we are nothing if not optimistic so slowly made our way to Ulva, birding along the way although not very successfully. At 10.00am we boarded the boat, and our enthusiastic captain reassured us that Eagles still came to the boat in the rain. Even better, they'd had an Eagle every time they'd gone out this year. This was just what we wanted to hear, so we set off with a lot more enthusiasm. The journey took about 30 minutes to the Loch where the Eagles were nesting and the only birds seen on the way were Black Guillemots and our first Common Guillemots of the week. It was still lashing down. Once in position the captain cut the engine and allowed the boat to drift as we all waited for the action to begin. And we waited. And waited. And...........well I think you get the picture. Unsurprisingly, the Eagles were a no show. The weather was so bad even the sea birds were complaining of getting wet! So we were the first trip of the year not to see any birds come to the boat. We were disappointed but to be honest thats the thing about wildlife, nothing is guaranteed. The three of us are fully aware of this and are quite philosophical about it, so we didnt stay down for very long. By the time the boat pulled into the harbour we were joking and laughing about how unlucky we were and how it could only happen to us!
Today we were to have a boat trip that had been arranged by Dougie the week before our holiday. The idea behind the trip was to try and get as close as possible to a pair of White Tailed Eagles. The captain does this by throwing out a couple of fish knowing that this is easy feed for the Eagles. The Eagles come as close as 15 feet on a good day. To put it mildly we were a teensy weensy bit excited. But, when we got up (again to Dougies magnificent cooking) our spirits werent exactly high. It was lashing down, and had been all night. To say it didnt look promising was a slight understatement. But still we are nothing if not optimistic so slowly made our way to Ulva, birding along the way although not very successfully. At 10.00am we boarded the boat, and our enthusiastic captain reassured us that Eagles still came to the boat in the rain. Even better, they'd had an Eagle every time they'd gone out this year. This was just what we wanted to hear, so we set off with a lot more enthusiasm. The journey took about 30 minutes to the Loch where the Eagles were nesting and the only birds seen on the way were Black Guillemots and our first Common Guillemots of the week. It was still lashing down. Once in position the captain cut the engine and allowed the boat to drift as we all waited for the action to begin. And we waited. And waited. And...........well I think you get the picture. Unsurprisingly, the Eagles were a no show. The weather was so bad even the sea birds were complaining of getting wet! So we were the first trip of the year not to see any birds come to the boat. We were disappointed but to be honest thats the thing about wildlife, nothing is guaranteed. The three of us are fully aware of this and are quite philosophical about it, so we didnt stay down for very long. By the time the boat pulled into the harbour we were joking and laughing about how unlucky we were and how it could only happen to us!
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