netural water

We shelter from a torrential spring shower under some trees, a respectful distance from the eagles’ nest. When I peer through Sexton’s telescope, I’m not sure what is nest and what is bird. Then I realise: the female is half the nest, an enormous mound of mottled brown feathers. Sexton is relieved: “We know she’s OK and she’s sitting on her eggs.” Augmented by further reintroductions on Wester Ross and Scotland’s east coast, a healthy population of British-born eagles, and a few Norwegian old-timers, now in their thirties, grace the Highlands. The reintroduction has proved a model for others around the globe, such as the Californian condor project, and also provides inspiration for the burgeoning rewilding movement and its ambitious moves to bring back beavers, lynx and even wolves.