Moffat Eagle Festival - Day 3

Into the weekend, I know Carlisle pick-ups today, so straight to the 'Eagle town' to meet the rest of the group for the 10 am start. Great to see some old familiar faces and friends of the company, along with meeting new guests.

A mixed bag of weather again with sunshine and showers and still a nice moderate wind to get those big raptors up on the wing!

We stuck to the same itinerary and checked a couple of Glens in an occupied eagle and struck lucky at the second site as we watched an adult Golden Eagle crossing from one side of the Glen to the other soaring over a spruce plantation before disappearing out of you. Nice to get a big target species early on in the trip of course and everyone got views on the binoculars, even getting tawny and golden colour on the bird as it dropped below the skyline.

We stopped at Grey Mays tail to enjoy the scenery as always and were surprised to see a wedding taking place next to the waterfall. They were all well-prepared with their umbrellas as the rain came down, and it didn't dampen in their spirits!

Into the afternoon, we looked at the different landscapes and talked about how the golden eagle would fit back into these ecosystems and what needed to be done to improve the food availability for the avian predators. Nice to see dippers and stone chats on our afternoon walk, along with good numbers of kestrels and buzzards.

The rain was quite heavy at times, so we did our best to work with the dry windows and handy to have the vehicle to stay dry and warm of course! Another lovely day out in the wilds with lovely like-minded people, and we look forward to meeting the group for our final day on Sunday.