The end of an era for Mull's iconic eagles

That fleeting encounter sparked a lifetime journey that led from his upbringing in south London to become the man credited with putting ‘Eagle Island’ on the map.

(Image: Amanda Fergusson Photography)

As bird charity RSPB Scotland’s Mull officer he has spent more than two decades keeping watch on the spectacular birds, following courtships to nest building, to incubating eggs and the joyful moment as the young take flight.

From a handful of birds to Mull's current 23 pairs, spanning the threat of egg thieves to avian flu, under Dave’s ‘eagle eye’ a species once hunted to extinction has thrived.

Now, having witnessed this season’s last chicks take flight, he is calling time.

But it's not that he has lost interest in Mull’s white-tailed eagles; his passion for them has not waivered.

Instead, it’s the thought of carrying on now that his beloved brown-eyed black labrador, Cally, is no longer by his side that makes going about his island routine that bit harder.

Cally, his constant companion for more than a decade as he trekked over moors and crouched in undergrowth keeping watch on the island’s sea eagles, died in February after a short and brutal cancer diagnosis.

Dave's dog, Cally, was a constant companion (Image: Olivia Sexton)

“It has affected me,” he admits. “I still check on the eagles, but I’ve been missing her so much.

“Even now I can’t go anywhere without thinking she is behind me and following me.”

The black labrador was a devoted partner all year round, in all weather, often playing her own part in the eagles’ story.

“I’m passionate about sea eagles but you have to sit and watch for hours before they do something,” explains Dave.

“Cally would curl up and go to sleep while I watched. Or she’d give a big sigh when I got the telescope out, as if say ‘oh, we’ll be here for a while’.

“She would often look up and see the eagle or hear it and she lead my way to them.

“She was 11. She got a very aggressive cancer and was gone within two weeks.

“It was a lot to adapt to. I miss her every day.”

Her loss triggered a period of reassessment. Having concluded it was time for change, Dave resolved to remain in his post until this nesting season was over.

There are now 150 breeding pairs of white-tailed eagles in Scotland (Image: Amanda Fergusson Photography)

That moment came as he looked towards a nest high in rocks near Fishness, where in recent days two chicks took their leap of faith and their first flight towards the Sound of Mull.

He is now in his final few days as RSPB Scotland’s Mull Officer; when he finishes, the role will also come to an end.

“Although the role is ending, in a way this job is never done,” he stresses. “There is an amazing network of locals and visitors who have almost adopted Mull’s sea eagles.

“With all those eyes and ears on the birds, they will still be looked after and well watched.”

Hunted to extinction in Scotland 1918, white-tailed eagles from Norway were brought to the Isle of Rum in 1975 for what started as a secretive reintroduction project.

As word got out, some farmers highlighted their fears for livestock. Elsewhere, sceptics felt the ten-year release programme would fail, adversely affect other species, or attract egg and trophy hunters.

The reintroduction of white-tailed eagles has been one of Scotland's nature success stories (Image: Amanda Fergusson Photography)

The project had been underway for five years when Dave and a friend visited the Isle of Mull in 1980 for a birdwatching holiday. There, as he watched one of the birds soaring over their heads and across Loch Spelve, it confirmed to him that it was working.

“I saw this huge bird flying across the loch,” he recalls. “I’d never seen anything like it, it was enormous.

“I got out of the car, put on the binoculars and saw it was an adult white-tailed eagle, one of the first to arrive on Mull from Rum.

“Even though it would five years before they fledged a chick, it was the fact they were surviving and reaching maturity.

“I watched it soar up and over the hill and thought how amazing it was.

“We had exterminated these birds in 1918 when the last one was shot in Shetland; a bird widespread across Britain and there we were, finishing off the last one.

“To put right that wrong and be part of that project… it means a heck of a lot.”

Dave, who had fallen in love with Mull since visiting on a school geography field trip two years earlier, would later return in 1984 to work with RSPB, keeping watch over one of the newly-established pairs as they prepared to mate.

Dave Sexton pictured in Mull in 1985 (Image: Chris Gomershall/rspb-images.com)

“Egg collectors sounds like something from the Victorian era, but there were still people actively coming to the Highlands and Islands intent on stealing the eggs of rare birds. And it’s still going on,” he says.

“We camped out in woodland at a discrete distance from the nest, ready to intercept if they did.

“There were three of us on 24-hours watch. It was quite an adventure.”

Although there were no chicks that year, 1985 brought success.

“We sat through the wettest summer with the worst midges in a leaky old RSPB tent, but I was able to watch the first chick fledge in Britain for 100 years,” he recalls.

The first white tailed eagle chick born on Mull, 1985 (Image: Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com)

“It was an incredible moment to be there, to see the family on the edge of the nest, feeding the chick, the tip of its little downy head.

“It was a huge project and it was our baby.”

The pair, Blondie and an unnamed male, bred from 1985 until her death in 2000, producing chicks most years. Without them, says Dave, the whole reintroduction project could easily have floundered.

Today Blondie’s 1992 chick, Frisa, now 32-years-old, is well-known to viewers of BBC’s Springwatch programme.

She paired with her partner, Skye, in 1997 going on to produce numerous chicks. Among them were Itchy and Scratchy which became television 'stars' in May 2005, when BBC cameras filmed the chicks in their nest, beaming them live into the nation’s living rooms.

Having spent two years guarding the nests in the 1980s, Dave left Mull to work in nature roles elsewhere before taking a role at the charity’s Edinburgh base managing reserves around the country.

His heart, though, was on the Isle of Mull. When he returned in 2003 as Mull Officer it was meant to be for a year. He stayed in the job for two more decades.

With nearly two dozen pairs well-established on Mull among 150 breeding pairs across Scotland, and with their chicks spreading their wings from Loch Lomond to the Spey Valley, he hopes more Scots will enjoy the privilege of witnessing the glorious sight of their 8ft wing span soaring overhead.

Mull has become known as 'Eagle Island' for birdwatchers (Image: Dave Sexton)

Although, he concedes, there is still work to convince some landowners they are not the threat to livestock they may think.

And, adds Dave, there have been devastating losses of white-tailed eagles which have strayed into the territories of driven grouse moors.

“No one denies that eagles – golden eagles as well – will take some live lambs over the years but not at the scale with which they are blamed.

“They sit in trees on rocks on a cliff and watch birds like hooded crows, ravens, black gulls which can do damage to lambs.

“Once they start the attack, the sea eagle will arrive and sometimes finish the job, then get the blame for doing the whole thing.”

NatureScot’s Sea Eagle Management Scheme helps farmers live side by side with the birds, offering support that can be used for extra health treatments for livestock, tick treatments, nutritional aids and indoor shelters for lambing.

And although there have been no losses this year, previous years have brought horrible news of birds which have strayed into grouse moors suffering terrible deaths.

Among them, one which fed on a hare which had been deliberately poisoned.

“It’s devastating,” adds Dave. “We have watched these birds since their parents’ built their nest, through winter, laying their eggs, incubating them through storms, them hatching and fledging.  

“To learn one has been poisoned or shot is devastating.”

A white-tailed eagle found dead in the Cairngorms in 2020 had been poisoned (Image: Alan Stewart)

So too, has been the nightmare of Avian flu which wiped out the 2022 breeding season on Mull and left Dave with the gut-wrenching task of picking up countless dead birds.

This year, though, has seen a record number of 18 chicks fledging: a poignant high point for Dave to step back. 

He plans to stay on Mull, perhaps write a book, host some wildlife tours and keep watch from afar on his beloved white-tailed eagles.

“It’s nice way to end my time in the role,” he adds. “But I’m never going to stop watching these birds.

“I owe them so much.”