Not about hunting, but I found this so strange that I like to share it with you.

Sailing trough a passage between two islands I saw a White-tailed eagle sitting on a large rock. A big flock of small birds (starlings ?) was harassing the eagle until it took to the wings and flew away. Tha small birds followed the eagle for a houndred meters or so, then came back and settled down on the rocky shoreline

I have seen seagulls do this to eagles before, but never such small birds.

Small birds will sometimes gang up on bigger birds of prey to get them to move on.

Safety in numbers ???????

I've seen a few birds go after raptors but never a huge flock. Are those birds together for migration ?

Well the fact he mentions Shoreline and 2 islands make me think they are Waders of some sort.

Waders roost and migrate in flocks.

If waders, during the day when the tide is out they feed and then roost on the shoreline when it comes in.

I've seen them chase of big birds of prey, smaller birds of prey like Peregrines etc
tend to swoop in, grab a bird in mid air and keep going and don't hang around.

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Cool picture, Arild!

A good friend has them nesting in forestry on his ground up in North west Scotland. When you shoot a deer they immediately come overhead and starting calling - almost as if saying hurry up with the gralloch. Since extraction is difficult most beasts we take the haunches, fillets and shoulders off and back pack these, the rest we leave. You only have to go 30 yards and they are down on the remains - they are huge.

I have also had the privilege of climbing out in a thermal on a paraglider and being joined by one and flying for several minutes wingtip to wingtip above the torridon mountains.

I thought for a moment that it could be small waders like sandpipers.
But they had short beaks and was most likely some sort of finches, sparrows or the like that was ready for starting the migration.

We have lots of eagles around those island and see them year around, but this is the first time I have seen confrontation with small birds.

Anyway, majestic birds the white tailed eagle and some of the young eagles that has been sendt to Scotland and Ireland came from this area

Very cool shot there Arlid, you live in a truly fantastic place my friend.

Can you hunt the small birds?

Amir, I just had an expert look at the picture, and the small birds are starlings.

They are not huntable here so I better let them fly south for the winter.

quote:

Originally posted by Arild Iversen:
Amir, I just had an expert look at the picture, and the small birds are starlings.

They are not huntable here so I better let them fly south for the winter.

Yes south.....like to Italy for example.

They'll be safe as houses in Italy......

If you could see the beaks, did you notice the colour ?

They could well be Starlings and the "jist" of them on the photos certainly makes them look like starlings - size, shape, wings, wing tips - but starlings and some small waders can look very similar.

Some Waders do have small beaks, it just depends on how small !!! LOL

The Italians will only be interested if the birds make good pasta sauce !