Sea Eagles main food - lambs!

Well I'm campaigning for the genetic recreation and reintroduction of the giganotosaurus. Of course, our current agricultural landscape won't support these giant predatory therapods so there'll be government grants to landowners to re-plant their land to re-create the cretaceous polar forests.

They'll obviously eat all the buzzards, red kites, sea eagles and beavers.... and people.... but so what... giganotosaurus were here first!

Vote for me! :lol:


:cuckoo:
 
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if I were living there and running a B & B then I might think different.

My girlfriend runs a self catering and her brother runs a B&B full time. Now they are both on Lewis which maybe doesn't sell the "sea eagle" thing in as big a way as other areas but Lewis has lots of eagles including sea eagles. I've never talked to them in detail on the subject so all I can say is that I've heard them mention tourists coming for lots of reasons but never for sea eagles. I know that the fact they've not mentioned something isn't proof of anything but it would suggest to me that at the very least sea eagles are not up the top of the priority list for tourists, nor are they making a big impact on tourism providers on Lewis.

The story may well be very different in other areas - Lewis isn't so easy to get to as some of the other islands and so there is less "exposure" for a charity or other organisation in promoting an activity on Lewis.

Based on my own observations I'd say Katie Morag, trout and salmon fishing, archaeology and even dolphins and whales all generate more interest with the tourists than the sea eagle. Another point, I guess, is that most people most of the time can't say for sure if they are seeing a golden eagle or a sea eagle, I certainly can't. Given this it may be that, from a tourist perspective, there would be no disadvantage in having a sustainable number of sea eagles living a relatively natural life along with the golden eagles. Most tourists are happy just to have seen an eagle and the subtle distinctions are confined to the rather smaller number of "expert" tourists, for want of a better term.
 
Mull seems to be a bit of a mecca for the "twitchers", you can see clusters of them with their spotting scopes by the roadside in some quite awkward parts of the road.
I got talking to someone in Tobermory who was on about the eagles that she had seen.
She then pointed out an "otter" in the bay.
I had already seen it...it was a mink.
 
SNH did produce details of prey at the nest sites a few years ago. All the bones and remains were removed at the end of the breeding season and identified. They produced the results a a public meeting to prove to the locals that all was well, ie lots of rabbits and various sea birds but no lambs. When asked they said no other anomalies had turned up, but they were all silent when one crofter said he had photos of two domestic cats at one nest site !
 
Mossy Do Sea Eagles always take there prey back to the nest?
Also depending on when they hatch but even with ur late lambing up there i would imagine lambs will be getting big by time chicks are hatching. Would imagine lambs would be more vurnerable just at lambing time itself.

Aye PF if ur the wrong type ofBoP some nature resrves are not long gettig rid of either the nests or individuals, Eagle owls never seem to nest or breed succesfully on some nature resrves ;) 1 rule ofe them and another for every one else
 
They would take it to the nest if the young are feeding I would think, although you do find where they have plucked lambs on knolls in the hill, a perfect circle of wool and nothing else left.
They will take lambs anytime of year, these birds are big enough to take an adult swan so lambs are easy picking.
Strange thing is when you watch them hunt, the sheep never look up or seem scared, the bird just swoops down and away with a lamb and the rest of the flock just carry on eating.
The local SNH visitor centre has a camera on a nest with a feed to a large screen for the public to view, don't know if it's live and uncensored though !
 
They will take lambs anytime of year, these birds are big enough to take an adult swan so lambs are easy picking.

Clutton-Brock in his book on the red deer on rum records that of 32 calves for which they were able to establish probable cause of death 3 were observed to have been taken by eagles, there were a further 11 for which cause of death was not established but he suggests that all showed evidence of being fed on by eagles and that it is possible some, or all, were killed by eagles. He also records that a calf weighing 20.5kg was killed by an immature eagle in Sutherland. He doesn't record if these were sea eagles or golden eagles.
 
There was a clip on tv few years ago .... Wildlife photographer captured golden eagles dive bombing group of hinds on a steep edged drop off / gulley . They were targeting single / young deer on edge of herd , eventually one went over , was killed & the eagles came in for theirs .

Was some thing to see on tv , must have been phenomenal bit of nature to see in the flesh so to speak

Paul
 
I seen a foriegn nature program where an eagle was doing just that on some sort of sheep/mouflon? on a very steep cliff face trying to off balance them or actually grab them to knock them off. Amazing to see and just shows how clever and adaptable most BoP species are
 
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