Iva Pocock visited the Scottish Highlands with conservationists for the collection of golden eagle chicks which are now being released in Co Donegal
'Are you looking at a golden eagle nest?" asks the woman picnicking with her family by the river below us. "No, no, just checking if there is anything of interest," replies ornithologist Colin Crooke, who is standing behind his telescope, along with a few other binocular-bearing enthusiasts.
"We've been looking out for them because we were told they are common around here, but we haven't seen any," she adds.
After a while Crooke, whose reticence in identifying the golden eagle nest mid-way up the 600-foot cliff on the other side of the river results from having caught four Germans stealing chicks some years back, relents, and he gives her a view of it through his telescope. Delighted, she runs back down to her husband, who then comes up for a peek.
The nest, or eyrie, located in a valley near Inverness, is one of about 400 in Scotland. Its occupiers, who have been together since the 1980s (golden eagles are faithful to their mates) are "probably one of the most productive pairs in the Scottish Highlands", explains Crooke, who has been watching them for years. "They generally produce two chicks per year."
Thus, their off-spring could be candidates for collection and be brought to Ireland as part of the Irish Golden Eagle Re-Introduction Project. The collection licence issued by the government authority, Scottish Natural Heritage, specifies that only a chick from a two-chick nest may be taken.
Lorcan O'Toole who is managing the project in Glenveagh, Co Donegal and Ronan Hannigan, a wildlife enthusiast who is closely involved with the project, are in Scotland to collect chicks, having successfully brought 14 of them to Ireland in 2002 and 2001. They are licensed to take 75 chicks over six years, complying with a strict code laid down by IUCN, the World Conservation Union. So far they are delighted with the four healthy young birds they have collected, which are being released in Co Donegal later this month.
Members of the Scottish raptor study groups - bird-watching enthusiasts with a particular interest in birds of prey - have put in hours of voluntary work preparing for the Irish team's arrival; each nest must be located and monitored, in order to identify those with two-chicks.
The project also depends on the co- operation and support of landowners in the area, many of whom are absentee landlords of huge "sporting" estates. Gaining permission to take one of "their" golden eagle chicks is a delicate business, as security is sometimes a concern. So just hours before I am due to join a collection party, the landowner's manager says he will accompany only two people to the nest on the estate.
Hence, the closest I get to a chick is in the aviary on a croft near Aviemore, where Roy Dennis of the Highland Foundation for Wildlife, which has played a key role in the Irish project, lives. There, four healthy specimens appear completely unruffled by being taken from their parents earlier that day. Still sporting fluffy yellow "baby" feathers between their more mature plumage, they happily gulp down their feed of roadkilled rabbit, chopped into manageable pieces by O'Toole. Once in Donegal they will have no contact with people, to ensure they are not "imprinted"; wildness is essential for their survival.
None of the chicks has yet fledged (once fledged at nine to 12 weeks of age they can fly, making collection impossible) but their wingspan at eight weeks is impressive, at almost two metres. Their talons, even at that young age, are also remarkable - essential for killing their varied prey. Pellet analysis shows they eat hare, rabbit, grey crows, ravens and seagulls and Hannigan recalls one nest in which a decapitated adder and a partly eaten fox cub lay.
Raptors' diets have been a bone of contention in Scotland since the 19th century, when gamekeepers justified killing them on the basis that they were a threat to the game birds so coveted by their employers. However, conservationists now have the law on their side - killing any bird of prey is a criminal offence, with heavy penalties for rare species such as the golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetus. The weakness of the law is its enforcement. Thus, organisations such as the Highland Foundation for Wildlife and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have focused on changing public attitudes as a means of protecting endangered bird species.
The Highland area is well-known for its other rare birds of prey. Red kites and osprey have now returned. Brian Etheridge of the RSPB explains that red kites were lost in the "heyday of the sporting estate just before the first World War", and that ospreys were exterminated by egg collectors. In the 1970s Dennis and Crooke, who both worked for the RSPB, talked of bringing back the red kite, a beautiful bird with a distinctive forked rusty-red tail, which it uses as a rudder to soar on thermals. They initiated a re-introduction programme, bringing birds from Sweden and East Germany, and in 1992 the first pair in over 100 years nested in Scotland. "It was a tremendous moment," says Crooke.
Ospreys, which live almost exclusively on fish, have slowly recolonised the area since the 1950s, aided in safeguarding their nests from egg-collectors. There are now 180 pairs in Scotland, about a third of which are nesting in man-made nests which the birds regard as safe, "because they think someone [another osprey\] has been there already", explains Etheridge.
The birds are now firmly absorbed into Highland culture: there's the Osprey Caravan Park, the Osprey Hotel and Red Kite organic beer from a local brewery. More importantly, they are recognised as a major tourist attraction - both ospreys and red kites are very beautiful and easy to identify. Standing beneath a red kite's nest, perched 40 foot up a larch tree, watching three young, nearly-fledged chicks sit patiently while their parents soar overhead, is a memorable moment. As Etheridge says, there is "something magic" about these creatures.
The golden eagle is equally uplifting, both emotionally and financially. Tourists come to the Scottish Highlands specifically to catch a glimpse of these magnificent creatures. They never died out in Scotland, as in Ireland, but numbers are still limited: 1992 figures show only 420 pairs and 150 immature birds in Scotland. England's Lake District is home to one lone pair and this year's survey is unlikely to show any increase.
"As a consequence, re-establishing a breeding population in Ireland would be a fantastic achievement and something to be proud of," says Crooke. "It is a great priority, not just for the Irish, but for all of us involved in golden eagle conservation."
Back beneath the golden eagle nest we wait patiently, enjoying the sunny skies, when suddenly there is a shout: "Up there, up there!" The picnickers below us are gesticulating madly. Sure enough, there is a golden eagle, gliding along the valley past its nest. Within seconds it is in binocular focus and then it rises out above the cliff and soars, viewing its territory and those watching in awe below it.
Another magical moment.
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