Sea Eagle in Caithness?

[northener]

Up at Groats today, guy with a set of bins thought he'd spotted a Sea Eagle off the Harbour heading towards Gill's Bay. By the time I got organised it was some distance away and heading out to sea.

Must say, I thought he'd probably be looking at a Bonxie. But I saw a distinctive flash of white rump before it became too small to observe clearly (handheld telescope bouncing about!).

Anybody else ever heard of any Sea Eagles around here? The guy said it had spent some time over the water and appeared to be hunting, so I doubt it was some land-based bird.

[NickInTheNorth]

there was this thread in May

http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?t=25855

[kas]

Yes I heard today of a sighting yesterday afternoon at John O Groats by a memeber of the North Coast Explorer crew.

Looks like you were lucky. I would love to see one.

There is normally a sighting annualy each year of late (I think).

CHeers
Kas

[fudge100]

a neighbour and friend of mine who works at the castle mey has been seeing sea eagles there quite often for the passed 3 or 4 months at least, she said they seem to come from the direction of the orkneys.

[Pterodroma]

Just a thought on Northerner's original posting - brown bird, white on the rump flying over the Pentland Firth - immature Northern Gannet???

[saffy100]

They were spotted last year off Mey too, by several people, if you get a good look at them they can not be mistaken for other species of sea bird.

I believe some sightings have been documented, i will try and remember where i saw this.

[northener]

Just a thought on Northerner's original posting - brown bird, white on the rump flying over the Pentland Firth - immature Northern Gannet???

Nope, see young gannets every day.

The young gannets tend to be almost a blackish colour, slowly breaking up as they mature. This was definitely a bird that was unfamiliar to me. Briefly thought about a hen harrie - but this was much bigger. I'm pretty certain now that I've looked into it a bit more, and with the previous sightings mentioned, that it was definitely a sea eagle.

[Kenn]

http://www.caithness.org/nature/bird...photos.htm?0?3

This is the pic that was taken. save you scrolling from the previous link.

[TisIivy]

Saw huge bird of prey sitting on chimney stack of ruined croft at clyth,lot of white on chest and white tail ,stopped car reversed to get better look as this bird looked huge sitting where it was, it took off and must have had couple of metre wingspan easily as big as golden eagle ,could this be sea -eagle or white tailed eagle?

[kas]

Saw huge bird of prey sitting on chimney stack of ruined croft at clyth,lot of white on chest and white tail ,stopped car reversed to get better look as this bird looked huge sitting where it was, it took off and must have had couple of metre wingspan easily as big as golden eagle ,could this be sea -eagle or white tailed eagle?

Sea eagle is another name for the White tailed eagle.

I know of a confirmed sighting of a Golden Eagle at Yarrows 9 days ago, and have also heard of unconfirmed reports of White tailed eagle in the Thrumpster area lately.

Try and have a look at some photographs on sites such as http://www.rspb-images.com/ to see if you can confirm what you saw.

[TisIivy]

Have looked at various pictures on different sites and am pretty sure it was a sea -eagle mainly from the sheer size of it and white tail ,to big for anything else apart from golden eagle but had too much white.

[kas]

Sorry I should have mentioned Juvenile golden eagles have white tails, and white on the wings. Will try and get a photo.

The 2nd year Golden Eagle spotted at yarrows last week had white feathering in the breast and a white tail. There is a chance this is what you saw.

[TisIivy]

Maybe was golden eagle! as where it was is only over hill from yarrows, going to start carrying camera in glove compartment bit late now but quite often out that way you never know.