Friday, February 04, 2022
After several short bursts of hailstones which then turned to wind-driven snow, I set off for Ardmair without much hope - but the snow turned to rain and then stopped, and I arrived at the lay-by in sunny conditions. I took a short walk without seeing much and returned to the car; looking towards the camp-site, I spotted a white-tailed sea eagle heading my way.
The eagle flew along parallel with the road - too close for me to get a decent shot. Mobbed by a buzzard up by the houses, it turned and did another flypast, landing eventually on the spit.
This would be the one time when I parked at the farthest end of the lay-by from the spit! Still, at least I didn't appear to be disturbing the eagle - and I leaned against the car and snapped a few photos. I wondered if it would find something among the rocks as a (probably) different bird did in December and carry it away; the light was better today (at least it was right then) and so I would have a better chance of seeing what it was.
Then a car pulled in at the camp-site end and a man got out with what looked like a large-lens camera. He walked through the camp-site to the far end (near the spit) and the eagle took off. I'm not suggesting those two events are linked; but they did happen in that order. Away went any hopes of finding out what an eagle finds to eat among the rocks - but I did get a handy-for-plumage-scrutiny shot as it took off.
