Filming with The One Show

Mike Dilger and team were with me today to make a feature for The One Show to be aired in September.  Sadly it was another very wet day of this dismal summer but we perservered and had a great day.  First stop was to try to get a view of eaglet, Agnes, at Glenfeshie Estate, tagged in the same nest as Alma, the eagle we tracked from 2007 to 2009. Tantalising the crag kept nearly appearing through the clouds and I guess the young eagle was as wet as we were so we retreated, and explored the fantastic examples of ecological restoration in Glenfeshie with Thomas MacDonell, the estate manager, who has pushed the project forward. Even in the rain the flowers were marvellous especially the showy displays of golden mountain saxifrage and wood vetch.   In the afternoon we talked about ospreys and viewed Morven’s eyrie – she and her mate, yellow HA, we perched above the nest looking very ‘drookit’ in the rain, but when it cleared the chick stood up in the nest and started to flap his wings, while Morven chased off a passing heron. When we reached Findhorn Bay, the rain cleared from the north and we had great views of 4 or 5 male ospreys fishing the low tide channels. At  least one carried off a flounder as we watched and several went out into the Moray Firth to hunt. An evening visit to Findhorn village is just one of the best places to view fishing ospreys.