JUST how mobile sea eagles can be has been illustrated by one of the newly released Isle of Wight residents – it was spotted flying over London just 10 days after its placement on the island.

Six youngsters were relocated from Scotland to the Isle of Wight. Five seem to be quite content with their new home, but one of the male juveniles has already made the 124-mile journey to the capital as confirmed by a tracker he is wearing.

He was even spotted by an eagle-eyed bird enthusiast (pardon the pun) from Westminster Bridge. The ornithologist must have been in the locale to witness the vultures feeding on the carcase of political common sense in the House of Commons!

Fish out of water

IN A rare outbreak of being nice to his wife, Jillian and their girls, David ‘Teagle Topper’ Haggart recently holidayed in Tenerife.

Just quite what they made of his broad mix of Dundonian/Lanarkshire accent, we’ll never know, but we do know he met up with Dundee-based Alastair Hodnett, while there.

The Raider hears that the two old guys, plus Alastair’s son Glyn, looked like fish out of water in a downtown night club. Well at least the two old guys did!

Cakes by the tonne

THE aforementioned Teagle Topper, AKA The Hobbit, was posted missing in action recently at the recent Islay Show, where he is a regular bon viveur.

The reason for his non-appearance was his ‘defection’ to Orkney for the Dounby and County shows, which was quite a justifiable excuse.

However, what was inexcusable was the fact that he took about a tonne of home-cooking by the lovely Jillian north to entertain the troops in Orkney.

Quite rightly, the good people of Islay are aggrieved that such largesse never comes their way and that her famous baking never seems to get a showcase there. Maybe next year?

Save the date

WE all agree that RHET is one of Scotland’s best charities, acting as it does as a conduit between the farming industry and the young people of Scotland.

It’s quite a surprise, then, that what we all think of as a fledgling organisation, is in fact 21 next year – and that’s a reason for celebration.

The SF is pleased to be the media partner for the 21 on 21, in 2020, celebration which takes the form of a gala dinner, plus entertainment and fund-raising, on February 21, in the Lowland Hall, at Ingliston.

You can do more than ‘save the date, though, you can sign up to take a table and support this very worthy cause. In fact, here’s a challenge, let’s see if the numbers can get to such a level that RHET can take this out of the Lowland Hall and into the Highland Hall! (Somebody’s going to shoot me for that ... but then again, maybe not).

Enquires to rhetgala@rhass.org.uk or phone Clare Dickson, RHET’s network support co-ordinator on 0131 335 6240 weekdays.