The eagle has landed...

Another day, another eagle.

One of the benefits of working in forestry is the number of eagle sightings. I sighted four different golden eagles living in our forests in one week recently.

What I find interesting is just how much they love a spruce tree.

The location of this particular nest is surrounded by thousands of hectares of open hill, complete with spectacular rocky crags, bogs, native woodland and a nature reserve.

No matter what habitat is available, they always chose the biggest, hairiest and ugliest spruce tree to build their nest in. As one old forester explained, "the good thing with leaving some random old spruce retentions is that you always know where the eagles are...."

But why not. To an eagle, these are high, stable platforms and the branches ensure shelter and mean that the nest cannot be seen from beneath making them ideal nest sites.

#biodiversity #forestry#naturalcapital