Posie's Blog. Tales of island life on a hebridean hill farm

Posie's Blog. Tales of island life on a hebridean hill farm

Thursday 15 September 2011

Gobbled up by Sea Eagles....almost

The morning started with a cat fight, literally. Spog, the cowboy, I mean cat, was standing guard in the middle of the single track road, I was alerted to his presence as I made my way over to the pottery in the sunshine. It was the high pitched yowls that did it, Spog positively strutting, prowling back and forth, circling, and looking ready to draw his gun at any moment. Suddenly Henrik appeared from nowhere, and darted across the road. Spog was like lightening on his tail, the air filled with the hissing, spitting and shrieking as Henrik cowered into the hedgerow and Spog stood over him, tail wagging, menacing eyes fixated. Of course I completely ruined the moment, venturing in, easing a very angry Spog out of the way with my foot, as I rescued Henrik and lifted him up over the dry stone dyke and into the garden. Spog was not impressed and spent over an hour prowling around the entrance to the farm, before finally giving in and arriving at the back door for some breakfast.

Youngest and I have taken to walking Ruby pup in the early evenings. We head across the field to join the path that leads to the tree swing and then onto Lilly Loch, where Ruby gets to dive into the cool waters after sticks.
Ruby is trying ever so hard not to chase those sheep, and is being discouraged by Meh Meh, the pet lamb, who now lives in the field with the other sheep. The happy farmer moved her and her wooden kennel into the field a few weeks ago. Meh Meh, joins the rest of the flock to graze during the day, but at night, or if the storm clouds gather, she can be found happily chewing the cud in her little kennel. This causes some entertainment for the children as she has grown rather a lot, and her huge belly and legs, hang out over the edges of the kennel as she continues to squeeze herself into her living quarters, a privileged sheep indeed. Meh Meh always makes a bee line for Ruby when she spies her, and refuses to be chased away by her, instead gently head butting Ruby if she gets over excited.
The other evening as we made our way through the field, youngest drew my attention to what seemed to be a large animal in the burn field. I couldn’t quite make out if it was a small roe deer sitting on its hind quarters, or a large group of hares all boxing. We walked slowly across the field and quickly made the shape out to be two very large eagles, sea eagles in fact. We stopped in awe, they were absolutely huge, one, on spying us, gracefully flew off and up into the air, however the other sat for seconds longer, and having read how a sea eagle attacked someone in Perthshire the other day, I did begin to wonder whether I shouldn’t turn and head back for the safety of the farmhouse. I really did not want to get gobbled up by one of these majestic animals, and I do tend to have an over active imagination, but just as my worries were bubbling up to the surface, the second sea eagle took flight, and joined its partner, we watched in awe as it soared off, high up above the hill, where it swooped and soared with its partner for quite some time, looking more like buzzards in the distance. Sea eagles have gradually been reintroduced to Scotland over the past few years, and I knew they were in the vicinity, so felt very privileged that they had chosen to swoop in on the farm, especially as they decided not to gobble me up in the process.
Until next time…..

10 comments:

Elizabethd said...

Posie, how amazing to see those wonderful birds. Be careful though!

bayou said...

Ha, another cowboy cat... looks and sounds exactly the scenario we have here on some days, lol.
Does the pup also go hunting or is it just a farm dog?
Sea eagles, lucky girl! It must be a-ma-zing to see them lift themselves up into the sky. Bizarre that they would attack humans, though. You are right, one is never careful enough.

Molly said...

Posie - I love the names you have for all your animals. Our two cats are just the same as yours - one minute all hell let loose ad then they're curling up together, best of friends. How wonderful to have a glimpse of those sea eagles, all the same I don't blame you for being cautious, you never know if they would attack or not.

Frances said...

Gosh Posie, I don't even think that I've ever heard of Sea Eagles before. I am going to have to look them up. Please do be careful!

The cats, dog, and sheep tales are also very entertaining. It seems as if there is lots of drama in your area. xo

Rob-bear said...

Of cats, I prefer to say as little as possible.
Of a sheep that takes on a dog — it seems that they have come to some kind of understanding, with Meh Meh serving as an intermediary.
Don't know much about Sea Eagles. I'll look them up. I suspect the info will be fascinating.

Pondside said...

We just have Bald Eagles up here, and I wouldn't tackle one of them. So glad to hear that you and yours were not gobbled up! Stay clear of those swooping marauders.

Posie said...

Ah thank you for all of your lovely comments. I spoke to the RSPB lady on the island and she says the incident in Perthshire was because the sea eagle had killed some geese and their owner got attacked as he went to release the geese and the sea eagle from the pen. She said for some reason the sea eagle must have been incredibly hungry to even consider attacking the geese. So I think I was fairly safe, perhaps the sheep would have been a tastier option!!

Norma Murray said...

Wow! Rosie, Sea Eagles - and I get excited to see a gold finch in my garden.

Norma Murray said...

A friend of mine who lives in Alaska had her cat taken by a bald eagle - so those naughty cats had better stop scrapping and keep their wits about them.

jane said...

Posie - How fortunate you were to see those eagles - but I think I would have been a little scared as well - love your update on the family animals and your lamb sounds a great character - how is Charlie - by the way we are looking after 5 chckens for a friend this week ! Take care - Janex