Islay in Autumn 2022 - Eagle Watching

15 Nov

This October we ran another very successful Eagle Quest tour to Islay & Jura. As always the islands delighted with a plethora of wildlife, every day brimming with superb encounters.

In Autumn the islands become home to the Greenlandic breeding population of Barnacle Geese, 30,000 of them to be precise, as well as Greenland White-fronted, Brent, the occasional Pink-footed and a few vagrant Cackling Geese. Alongside this goose extravaganza, one of the main draws is the abundance of raptors.

Every day yielded both White-tailed and Golden Eagle encounters with some memorable moments. On Jura a pair of Golden Eagles tussled with White-tailed’s and even bombed a Buzzard, with five eagles in view at once. An impressive six White-tailed’s showed amazingly over Loch Skerrols where three chased each other around calling whilst blazing through the tree-tops. Our favoured Hen Harrier roost site produced up to 10 of the latter but also a Marsh Harrier and best of all a young Golden Eagle which quartered through the middle of the harriers (much to their consternation) and away over the moor giving incredible views in the setting sun.

A juvenile Golden Eagle quartering slowly over the moor at dusk, just one of many eagle highlights

As well as the eagles, Jura proved to be an island of contrasts with the windswept hills and herds of Red Deers providing a very different experience to the sheltered coastal waters home to Red-breasted Mergansers, Great Northern Divers and a brief Otter. Similarly the sealochs, bays and coves of eastern Islay produced our best Otter encounter alongside Common Seal.

Our tour to Islay and Jura is not complete without experiencing both Gruinart and The Oa RSPB reserves through their respective site managers. Understanding how the farms are managed for nature AND to be productive farms is fascinating, especially when enjoying a flock of 300 Twite in the process. Taking a stroll through the reserves and their abundance of wildlife really takes on a whole new perspective when you can appreciate just what goes into making these reserves both a haven for wildlife and also profitable.