A pair of rare sea eagles featured on the BBC's Springwatch programme have lost both of their young chicks in what looks like a freak fall from their nest.
Staff at the Mull Eagle Watch project discovered both of the one-day old eaglets under the nest on the north-east side of the island after becoming concerned due to uncharacteristic behaviour from the adult birds.
Local wildlife experts tried unsuccessfully to revive the chicks. The young deaths mean nesting efforts by the birds has now failed for this year. Dave Sexton, RSPB Scotland's Mull Officer, who was first on the scene, said: "We knew something had gone badly wrong when both adult eagles were seen soaring high above the area of woodland containing the nest, when normally one of them should be brooding the chicks.
"Fearing the worst, we moved closer to the nest and sure enough, there were two tiny, lifeless down-covered chicks on the ground. It looks like the nest may have slipped overnight and both chicks tumbled to their deaths. The impact of the fall from about 30 feet may have killed them, or they may have quickly developed hypothermia without a parent to brood them.
"It's an incredibly sad situation, both for the parent eagles who now look very lost and for the huge number of volunteers from the local community who do so much to protect them every year."
The nest site was the focus of a Forestry Commission Scotland and RSPB Scotland's viewing project supported by Strathclyde Police and local community volunteers. It was to allow the public to view the chicks and adult birds as they returned with food.
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