Sea eagle seen at Haweswater

A sea eagle was seen near the Haweswater Golden Eagle at Riggindale yesterday Sunday 11th April 2010. RSPB volunteer warden Pete reports that it was definitely a White-tailed Eagle:

"No doubt whatsoever. Although before I got the scope on it I was hoping it was female golden. Massive wingspan, wings held outstretched, with golden eagle making size comparison easy, fan tail(though not obviously white), protuding head. As it split from golden eagle a raven mobbed it as it left valley over by Kidsty. A moment I do not think i will forget! Dave has said that there was a report of sea eagle [earlier] at Leighton Moss yesterday at 12.50am."

It now seems likely that this sea eagle is a young 2 year old from East Scotland which has been wandering far and had been seen previously near Newcastle, North Yorkshire and Hull. It doesn't have wing tags but is wearing a radio transmitter (not satellite tag). More info on the East Scotland Sea Eagles blog.

The previous day we saw the Golden Eagle being mobbed simultaneously by a Buzzard and a Peregrine during a 45 minute flight. Certainly an eventful weekend.

Lake View bird report for March 2010

March started off very cold - indeed our shaded front garden had been in permafrost since mid December, and it only thawed out in mid-March, enough to move the spike that holds a peanut feeder.

We saw a good number of bird species, 26, with the return of Curlews nearby and a Pied Wagtail. We were concerned that we'd lost our Wren as none had been seen all month (though one has been seen at the time of writing in April). The continued cold meant we saw a Jay again along with two male Reed Buntings. Nice to see a Goldcrest again. We have been keeping a daily eye on the pair of Tawny Owls that regularly roost in the spruce trees next to our house, noting which trees they roost in each day - still no sign of taking up residence in the Tawny Owl box that I've put up there. The only sign of nest building was from the Jackdaws in the old Barn Owl box.

The linked table below shows the maximum count of each bird species seen primarily in our back garden near Bampton Cumbria in NY51 VC69 (and in our surrounding 1km square) in the period from November 2007 until March 2010, with a total count of 46 species.

Full Lake View Monthly Max Bird Count Seen table

Species	Mar-10
Blackbird	6
Blue tit	4
Brambling
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Carrion crow
Chaffinch	8
Coal tit	1
Collared dove
Curlew	2
Dunnock	2
Fieldfare	20
Goldcrest	1
Goldfinch	3
Great spotted woodpecker	2
Great tit	2
Greenfinch	3
Grey heron
Jackdaw	6
Jay	1
Kestrel	1
Linnet
Long-tailed tit
Magpie	1
Mistle thrush	1
Nuthatch
Pheasant	1
Pied wagtail	1
Redstart
Redwing
Reed bunting	2
Robin	2
Siskin
Skylark
Song thrush	2
Sparrowhawk
Spotted flycatcher
Starling	40
Stock dove	2
Swallow
Swift
Tawny owl	2
Willow warbler
Woodpigeon	1
Wren
Yellowhammer
Total: 46	26