Eagles are one of the wildlife highlights of sea kayak trips. They can be seen around Arisaig and across much of the West coast of Scotland.

I drove down to Ardtoe today to have a little explore around Kentra bay. This is a top little spot for sea kayaking but I don’t come here very often due to the winding single track roads that lead here.

It is definitely worth the drive though as the woods and coastline around the bay are very wild and home to lots of wildlife:

After putting on at the small beach at Ardtoe I headed into the mouth of Kentra bay and paddled up to Eilean Dubh just west of the jetty. Paddling through the little gap between the islands I suddenly became aware of a very large bird just metres away. I quickly grabbed for my camera thinking the Eagle would fly off straight away but it remained motionless. I soon realised that it had other things on its mind; it was watching an otter feed on the carcass of a dead bird (bottom right in the photo above), waiting for it’s moment to steal the food.

After a couple of minutes I edged away slowly not wanting to disturb the scene, but the otter heard me and dashed into the sea and the Eagle took to the air. I watched the otter swim away around the back of the island. I then paddled away from the island and turned my camera up to the eagle which circled the island before flying down to grab the carcass of the bird:

Once the Eagle had it’s meal it flew off to the trees, well out of the way of the Otters. I was still sat there in my kayak next to the islands without another person in sight. As I carried on to explore the bay I watched the Eagle fly over a couple of times each time stopping and staring at the sheer magnificence of these birds. Despite seeing a lot of Sea Eagles they never fail to impress, seeing one of these up close is definitely one of the highlights of the sea kayaking world.