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Satellite tracking confirms sightings of Sea Eagles over London and Edinburgh. Amazing!
" Culver, the first sea eagle to fly over southern England in 240 years. The satellite tag on his back showed that for his first big exploratory flight the young eagle had gone straight for the capital, flying directly over the Houses of Parliament, along the South Bank and over Blackfriars Bridge before continuing along the Thames then looping back down to his new home on the Isle of Wight."
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/sea-eagles-back-breeding-conservation-9n9d6k533
"A rare sea eagle carrying the hopes of a pioneering English breeding programme has returned home to the Isle of Wight after two years spent flying 10,000 miles around western Europe."
That's just Eddie the sea eagle from Pennyghael have an entitled wee jaunt down to London via Edinburgh maybe looking for a mate
We all need a holiday from time to time
I can't read the link because it's The Times, but the IoW reintroduction has been going on since 2019, iirc, and those eagles have ranged across the country rather widely. I went to a talk, last autumn, about the proposed reintroduction in Gwent and the speaker told us of her excitement when one was spotted perched in a wind farm up the mountain from her home in the Valleys.
The Welsh project needs to jump through more hoops than the English one because, for some unfathomable reason, the eagles are seen as invasive species in Wales but not in England.
A Uist farmer was claiming that sea eagles had carried away and eaten five of his Shetland ponies, later found to be untrue on inspection of the nests.
he IoW reintroduction has been going on since 2019, iirc, and those eagles have ranged across the country rather widely. I went to a talk, last autumn, about the proposed reintroduction in Gwent and the speaker told us of her excitement when one was spotted perched in a wind farm up the mountain from her home in the Valleys.
Aaaah, I wonder if that's that we saw in Dartmoor last month. We were walking up in the hills and saw 'something' raptor-y, looked big (but it was at quite a distance) and I swear it had a white head
I swear it had a white head
I'm not sure that the White Tailed Sea Eagle has a white head! If it was large, with a pale head around here I'd be tempted to think kite, marsh harrier or maybe osprey? (Or even buzzard - there's so much variation in plumage - I saw such a pale one a few months ago that it looked almost completely white in the sun.)
I'm not sure that the White Tailed Sea Eagle has a white head!
Maybe it was flying backwards 😉
To be honest, my first thought was osprey; it was bigger than a buzzard (we get loads of them round here)
Fabulous birds to see in the flesh.
We're pretty sure one flew (quite high) over us in Marple. This was a few years ago now, we got home then checked the tracking and yes it was showing up as flying dead straight over our area.
I've been lucky enough to see them many times on Mull. Their diet is amazing, everything from a decent sized fish to a grey squirrel and much in between.
They're even more impressive up close...
Back home on the West coast of Denmark and usually see them here. They started off introducing a pair and fed them in some secret spots to start with but now have a good amount of them.
Weather been horrible so far on this visit and not had any luck finding them yet, only lots of Hen harriers and a few kingfishers.
You are never in doubt once you see them due to them being so much bigger than anything else around.
Picture from last time i was here
Absolutely spectacular - I'm lucky enough to have a pair and a single routinely patrol by my house. They fly along the road and round fields at less than treetop height
No white heads , no eating ponies but they are interested in cats and small yappy dogs
I saw such a pale one a few months ago that it looked almost completely white in the sun
Maybe a Honey Buzzard
I've been lucky enough to see them many times on Mull. Their diet is amazing, everything from a decent sized fish to a grey squirrel and much in between.
One of the first we saw was actually just off Skye.
If you watch closely you can see something coming in from the right: the deckhand used a syringe to inject air into a dead fish so it would float, then tossed it overboard. The bird was obviously used to this happening and was on it like a flash. As @Bunnyhop syas we've been lucky enough to see them many times since then around Mull and the Hebrides
@ihn - larger than a buzzard with a white head sounds like a female (or maybe juvenile) Marsh Harrier if the body was mostly brown. If there was more colour variation then Red Kite is a good call but I expect you'd recognise those as much as a buzzard
A Uist farmer was claiming that sea eagles had carried away and eaten five of his Shetland ponies, later found to be untrue on inspection of the nests.
Yeah, of course a sea eagle carried off five Shetland Ponies… 😒
Sure, a bird weighing between 8.9 to 11.3lb, depending on male or female, can carry away a pony weighing between 200 - 450lb…
*sigh*
I swear it had a white head
That’s the Bald Eagle, an American fish eagle. It’s always possible that one has escaped from a bird conservancy - there are plenty of escapee’s of various species. The Eagle Owls over on the east coast are claimed to be escaped birds, and there have been calls for them to be captured because they’re not a native species, but that’s not true - Eagle Owls were native, but a long time ago, and it’s more than likely that these birds have flown across the North Sea from Europe and they’ve been breeding here since 1996!
some more info on just how big these things are: https://www.reddit.com/r/UKBirds/comments/1oii2cj/saw_a_whitetailed_eagle_chasing_grey_herons_in/#lightbox
Yeah, of course a sea eagle carried off five Shetland Ponies… 😒
The story at the time was that eagles had made off with foal(s), but even that seems pretty improbable, given that a foal weighs 40lb+ at birth. And no bone, teeth or hair/skin evidence was found in any of the nests that were checked.
I saw such a pale one a few months ago that it looked almost completely white in the sun
Maybe a Honey Buzzard
No, definitely a Common Buzzard.
you get pale morph buzzards, juveniles can also be pale like this one:
I see a fair few around here although sadly not from my house.
They are essentially unmistakable on account of their outrageous size. I would say if you aren't sure that what you are looking at is a sea eagle, it probably isn't one. They are so enormous it's hard to believe they can fly, let alone carry out the acrobatics that they often do. They seem completely non plussed by our presence on the water. The head area is often paler, I'm not sure if it's an age thing or genetic.
I've seen golden eagles too, very close and high in the sky. They are easy to distinguish from the sea eagle despite also being very big - the wing and general body shape is different - and they seem far more secretive.
There are some amazing raptors in the UK, you never tire from the thrill of seeing them whether a tiny Merlin or a monstrous Sea Eagle, and everything in between