On the trail of the white tail

Recognise this location? read on for more.

About a month ago this video was sent onto the facebook page by Kerryclimbing.ie.

https://www.facebook.com/KerryClimbing/videos/vb.110552822352912/851786784896175/?type=2&theater

Eagles Nest.

It features an adult (7 year old as indicated by its red wing tags), male White-tailed eagle feeding on what appears to be a young deer along the Long range in Killarney National park, the bird is then spooked and flies to a nearby rocky outcrop to assess his surroundings dwarfing the accompanying raven in the process!

After seeing this video I was interested in locating this site for the oppertunity to spot the feeding eagle and positivlty identify its lunch!
It took me another week to find the time to acually venture out into the park and by this time I really didn't expect to come across and feeding eagles as there would surely be no meat left for the birds to strip.

In the build up to my mini expedition I went about reviewing aerial images of the area the above clip was filmed at, which just so happened to be Eagles nest mountain, the location where the last pair of Golden eagles nested in the park a century ago. Back then it has been reported that a blunderbuss would be fired while passing by boat to flush any eagles for the delight of any visitors. Times have changed as the cameraman in the featured film keeps his distance from the eagle while he had his fill of food.

Back to the trek, after singling down the likley location that the eagle had fed on by means of locating the rocky outcrop I gathered my gear and got a lift out there. Admittedly I went into the bogland far sooner than I should have and this added alot of time onto the walk, the soft grround underfoot often rose up to knee height so I had to choose my footholds carefully and I eventually managed to reach higher (and dryier) ground. I was near the old weir bridge which was far too downriver to where I reckoned the location was but in any event I took out the binoculars and scanned the dead grass banks and bare rock for any sign of the parks avian giant.

Moving down from the high patch I stumbled upon a small isolated woodland with very evident schorch marks. The wood was some distance from where the massive fire burned its way into the park a few months ago so it may or may not have been deliberitaly been started in this secluded section of the park, regardless the damage appeared to be minimal, thankfully.

Dire damage in the park.

Back to the task, I opted to wade through the various deer paths crisscrossing the Long ranges banks rather than my origional strategy of trudgine through the mounds of dead vegetation along the waters edge.
Meandering my way along the river I opted to avoid a section of the river near the mountain as I could see a rocky area that resembled the area the film was taken at. But I was wrong and I had to wade back the way I came and out onto the area of land flanked on three sides by the river.
Ascending aother patch of high ground, the terrain seemed failiiar but in an inverted senxe as I was up on top of where the eagle had landed!

A road less travelled!

I moved down to rivers side once more and weaved my way through the tussuks of grass towering above the kneehigh water overflowing from a much higher Long range than a week previous when the eagle fed on its shoreline. Following a thorough search of the area where the prey item would have been I came to the conclusion that it had either been swallowed up by the deeper river or had been taken away by a scavenger be it terrestrial of aerial.
Returning to the rocky outcrop I searched for any evidence left behind by the eagle and wasent disappointed ass I uncovered a white downy feather tipped by a brown colouration tangled in a clump of heather growning from the outcrop, sucess!

The eagles downy feather.

This find was worth getting well drenched for and while I didn't find the carcass I know the eagle was well fed after discovering it, and thats what really matters!

The Eagles view and Eagles nest!