Mull eagles beat the royals with new arrival

Martin Laing

It isn’t just the royal family who are celebrating the arrival of a new baby – as a pair of Mull’s famous white-tailed eagles just beat them to it.

The eagles at the North West Mull Community Eagle Watch are believed to have hatched one egg sometime in the 24 hours before the royal birth was announced but rangers monitoring the nest from a distance were only able to confirm a feed this week.

All eyes are now on the public nest in the community-owned forest at West Ardhu to see if it is, in fact, twins for the eagle pair, who are known as Hope and Star.

The 12-year-old female Hope had become increasingly reluctant to leave the nest near Dervaig when her nine-year-old mate Star landed to take over incubation duties – a sure sign that she was hearing the chicks calling from inside the egg and did not want to leave them.

Sea eagle eggs hatch a day or two apart, so hopes were still high that there would be another arrival.

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'Shoved' sea eagle chick on Mull flies nest

18 July 2014 Last updated at 21:28

A sea eagle chick, featured on BBC Springwatch, which was seen being pushed out of the nest by an intruder eagle has successfully flown the nest.

The young chick, which fell 30ft, was seen via webcam being shoved out of the Mull nest by another bird - behaviour never recorded in Scotland before.

It was returned to the nest by Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) rangers.

Worried viewers noticed the nest empty again but it was confirmed that the chick fledged successfully on Thursday.

The three-month old was seen perched in nearby woodland and was flying strongly.

Dave Sexton, the RSPB's Mull officer, who has been monitoring the nest, said: "We were initially concerned as there was no sign of the chick and I couldn't hear her either which was unusual.

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