I cannot tell you how many times I’ve dreamed of seeing a white-tailed sea eagle in the wild. In my humble opinion, they’re one of the most magnificent creatures on earth. That enormous wingspan, the huge, yellow talons, the rusty orange eyes that speak of the wind and the mountains and the sea. Back in 2011 I’d tried to see them in Killarney National Park, where they were reintroduced just over 10 years ago. Though that trip was magnificent in many other ways, we didn’t see eagles- but even just the thought that they were there gave the place a magic which had been long been absent (the last of the Irish sea-eagles were persecuted to extinction in the early 1900s).
I was therefore ridiculously excited when we arrived on Hoy, the second stop of our Orcadian journey, to hear news that not only was there a pair of sea eagles on the island, but that they currently had two chicks- the first to be born in Orkney for over 140 years. The RSPB had set up a viewing post with some scopes, so, as soon as we drove off the ferry, we set the sat nav to Dwarfie Stane. Trying unsuccessfully to keep my expectations low, I got out of the car and headed over to the little group of people by a set of tripods.
The eyrie was high in the crags in one of the most spectacular bits of the island. Hoy’s northern side has much more in common with the Scottish Highlands than the softly undulating hills of the rest of the Orkneys, and the scene was set for what would hopefully be a memorable first sighting. I peered through the scope, hardly daring to believe that I might finally be about to see a wild eagle (never mind a chick), and there they were- two young eaglets sitting in their nest. They were far enough away only to be small points in the viewfinder- but you could still appreciate that they were enormous compared to the other birds we’d seen that day. White-tailed sea eagles are often called ‘flying doors’ because of their (frankly enormous) wing span of 2.5m, which is longer than most people are tall.
I took a minute to think about how momentous their presence here was- these totemic predators, finally home after such a long absence. After that first sighting, we called by the viewing area whenever we passed Dwarfie Stane, eventually timing our visit right to see both parents. Apparently they were spending much of their time picking off fulmars near the Old Man of Hoy, which seemed to be about as perfect an image as I could conjure. It was such an immense privilege to have been there for such a special moment- a definitive highlight of our trip.
I should ‘fess up here, and say that the eagles in these pictures are very much not the Hoy birds (I wish)- they’re two individuals from Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, Ireland. Those fine views are, however, 100% genuine. More from Hoy coming your way soon x
