Call of the wild lures sea eagles

Birds of prey will be radio-tagged to check progress
By Stacey Horne

WILDLIFE experts are releasing a number of Scotland’s largest birds of prey from a secret location on the east coast next week.

RSPB Scotland is freeing the white-tailed sea eagles – known as “flying barn doors” because of their 8ft wingspan – into the wild over the course of next week.

They will be let go as part of the east Scotland sea eagles project – a five-year partnership between RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland.

The chicks will be radio-tagged so their progress can be recorded until they reach breeding age in the next three to five years. RSPB Scotland’s Tayside and Fife area manager Bruce Anderson said: “There will be two release dates – the 17th and the 19th next week.

“It’s the fourth year of the translocation where around 15-20 sea eagles from Norway are released.

“In previous years we have released 15 but this year it will be 19.

“The birds are collected from our Norwegian partners and they take them from nests containing twins.

“The species is globally endangered and part of the project is to expand its range back to where it was, and that includes Scotland.

“The last one was killed in Skye in 1907 and they were hunted to extinction so the habitat for them is still there. It was human actions that made them extinct.

“So there is no reason why they can’t thrive again.”

Around 22 sea eagles can be seen at Blair Drummond Safari Park, near Stirling.

The birds are weighed daily to monitor their condition.

Falconer Ross Bibby said: “It’s something we do every day.

“It’s the way we gauge the birds’ hunger and willingness to work – it’s based on weight.

“If they are a good weight we can use them for our demonstrations.”