After spending just over a month in the care of SSPCA, the sea eagle that was rescued from the north Aberdeenshire coast has finally been re-released into the wild. This time, successfully! It was decided to release the bird in Fife in a brief window of good weather on Tuesday.
The bird had been carefully washed several times to remove the grease from his feathers which prevented him from taking off at the previous attempted release at Loch of Strathbeg. He is now in far better condition thanks to SSPCA and flew beautifully from the release site in Fife-he even gave us a fly-by a few minutes later just to show off! He's a very strong bird and I'm sure he will make great progress. His radio transmitter was reattached prior to release allowing me to keep an eye on him for as long as he stays in the area.
The wing tags used in Ireland are slightly different to the ones used here in Scotland-they have a different colour on each wing and you can read the tag from underneath aswell which is quite useful! Keep your eyes peeled for this bird in the skies of Fife!
This photo was taken last year in Ireland by Dick Coombes at Cape Clear.
Thanks for the update, Rhian. I wondered how he was coming along!
Can I take this opportunity to thank yourself and Claire along with all of your RSPB colleagues for the marvellous work that you've done this year.
I'm sure there are many people out there (myself included) who take great pleasure from seeing these incredible birds and are immensely grateful for your efforts.
I'm already looking forward to the next batch of eagles being released in August.
Will it be green, black or orange wing tags next time around?