Close encounters of the feathered kind!

Today has been one of those that reminds me why the estate is such a fantastic place to live and work – as your never really sure what the day will bring.

It started with the arrival of one of the directors at the office with a box which contained a ’surprise’, not quite sure what to expect I approached causiously and peered over the side of the box and was pleasantly surprised to find a small feathered creature  cowered in the corner. The creature in question was a Goldcrest – the UK smallest bird, it was easily identifiable from the yellow crest on its head and its ‘cute’ expression which makes it look almost sad. These are fantastic little birds associated mostly with coniferous woodlands although there have been a number of sightings of them on the estate over the summer in gardens with a lot of bushes. The poor wee thing had somehow found its way into Swainbost shop and after a couple of hours of being chased by customers it was eventually caught and brought down to my office. I was able to ID for the curious customers and then gave it a quick check over for injuries before setting it free in a group of bushes behind the office.

Only an hour later I was travelling back from Ballantrushal when I saw a large bird flying over the moor behind the church at North Dell, its size was a clear giveaway and there was absolutely no mistaking that it was a White -tailed Sea Eagle, I’ve seen them here many times before but you can’t help but be in awe of them when you see them up close. This bird had a red tag on each wing so I made a quick call to the local RSPB officer as it helps them to identify where the bird has come from and learn more about its movements and habits throughout the year.

It’s an interesting time for birdwatching at the moment as we are at the cross over for the migrating birds. Already I’ve seen winter visitors such Snow Bunting, Turnstones, Whooper Swans and large numbers of Geese but some of our summer visitors such as Wheatear are also still around, there have also been reports of Corncrakes being seen on the island in the last couple of weeks.

There can’t be many days where you get to see the smallest and largest birds in the country in the space of a couple of hours – fantastic!