Welcome to the first in a series of Lazy Old Caley Lost Blogs. I have the best part of six months birding that apart from a few isolated significant events went unrecorded by me mainly because I was too busy chasing numbers for my Big Year. So in the unlikely event that I ever write a book about my birding escapades so that these memories are not lost forever, I've decided that I will try to post brief accounts of those lost days plus some photos of course. A few of the blogs like the first one below will be lengthier because they were already written but never published at the time, but thankfully (I hear you say) most will be much more abbreviated.
There was a bird, a true mega in UK terms, that had been discovered in the hills above Strath Brora in North-east Scotland a week or so before our fortnights holiday. In fact the Short-toed Eagle that we were looking for was likely the same bird that had been seen close to Lairg, about twenty miles further west, by just a single observer the year before. This year the Eagle had been seen on the 24 May flying over a coast road by a local birder. Realising that it was probably the same bird as the previous year and that it had probably returned to spend another summer, Dean (the finder) organised a small group of birders to look for the bird. With much planning and walking into likely areas they incredibly re-found the Eagle in an area of upland near to Loch Grudie about ten miles west of Brora. For the next two weeks the Snake Eagle (as it sometimes referred to because of its propensity to feature lots of snakes in its diet) was seen frequently around the loch by many people. Some decent photos were posted online, see this amazing image taken by Peter Stronach at 28/5/2022 - Short-toed Eagle in Sutherland (Peter Stronach) on the day it was rediscovered.
I had watched for news of the Eagle continually during the previous week while in Northumberland and had been in touch with both Peter and Dean to establish the route, whether or not the Loch was very arduous to reach and parking details. Armed with the details we left our holiday cottage early on the Monday morning and arrived at the access point at 09:00. There were no other cars parked close by so we'd be on our own. After a false start, where in our haste we missed the entry to the track that we were supposed to take and walked into a garden instead, we climbed steadily into the hills walking past a coniferous plantation to our right while enjoying ever increasing and sweeping views to our left. There were few birds to be seen or heard on the early part of the walk apart from some Gulls distantly flying over the strath and a couple of Robins chasing each other round a tree in the wood. We knew that we had to reach the end of the wood and then emerge onto the open ground before we'd be in the correct general area where the Eagle had been seen. Around halfway we spied a nice Spotted Flycatcher which posed nicely. I didn't realise at the time that the photos I took of it would be some of just a handful that I'd take all day!
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| Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) |
We reached the end of the wood but still had to walk for another ten minutes or so before topping out. The panorama of a vast moorland area opened out ahead of us and we could see the Loch, the larger plantation beyond and the heather clad bank below it where most sightings of the Eagle were reported. The Short-toed Eagle had chosen this spot because of a high density of Adders in the area and it had been observed catching several of them. I never even knew that Adders existed so far north!
We were joined by a chap who had driven up from Stirling and who had first hand information from a friend of his who had seen the Eagle a few days before so we knew we were in the right place. The time of day was right too so all we had to do was wait for the bird. A couple of Common Buzzards were the first raptors to show, thermaling up high above the plantation that we passed on the way up. A Curlew flew past calling and lots of Common Gulls passed in one direction or another. It was a warm day with full sun for the first two hours and heat shimmer soon became an issue when viewing the distant hillside through optics. After the first two hours a male Hen Harrier flew across the hillside to the left of the Loch. The distances in the hills are huge so my photos hardly did the bird any justice but you can see what it was.
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| Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) |
A few other birders had joined us but at midday with no sign of the Eagle, severe twitchiness was setting in. Our new found friend from Stirling had been in touch with his mate and realised that if we walked up an adjacent hill then we'd get a much clearer view of the hillside and plantation on the furthest side of the Loch. Getting to the top of the hill wasn't easy owing to boggy areas and small streams but on reaching the top we found that the extra elevation did indeed give us a near all round three-sixty view of the whole area. A local couple arrived and joined us, telling us that just two days before they had had superb views of the Snake Eagle from this new viewpoint. They had seen it hovering above the plantation, dropping into the heather and even sitting on fence posts. They related to us that it was huge, almost the size of the more familiar Golden Eagles so there would be no confusion with any pale coloured Buzzards that may be in the area. The couple were obviously skilled in spotting raptors and they soon pointed out the Hen Harrier again and followed that by spotting an Osprey, which briefly got the heart pumping, that flew through the area.
Next up they spotted a Golden eagle behind us and away from where we expected the Short-toed Eagle to appear. We had superb scope views of the Goldie as it soared up on a thermal but the heat haze was now so bad that my photos were absolutely destroyed. I've seen lots of Golden Eagles in Scotland and apart from a few photos taken of two birds in Benbecula which were also hampered by heat shimmer so only just about made the poorest grade, I've never managed to capture an image that I'm happy with. Views have always been better than the photographic results.
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| Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) |
We spent another three hours staring forlornly at the sky, fences, trees and just about everywhere else, hoping that the Snake Eagle would appear but it didn't. We left at four o'clock after seven hours in the field thinking we may try again later in the holiday. The Eagle was reported the following day but a few miles away from where we'd been and then not again. It must have relocated into another area or even another country (one was recorded a week or so later in The Netherlands). Fingers crossed it will return for another summer and we can get another chance at adding the species to our list.
In hindsight we should have drove up and seen the bird the day before since it had shown well throughout, but we needed a down day after the travelling up from Northumberland and never even considered that the Eagle would put in a no show. You cannot take anything for granted in birding.
Year List addition;
232) Golden Eagle
Golden-ringed Dragonfly
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