The birds have been out for a couple of months now and are certainly making their presence felt.

For the first week or so after release the birds were all fairly sedentary, taking a lot of floppy, slow practice flights in nearby fields and woods. However, although the birds remained near the cages, it took some of them 6 days until they returned to feed, I think they were just enjoying their freedom too much! This behaviour…

Its been a busy couple of days getting things set up for release and bringing up a couple of local people for the last feeds and it was a relief to remember where I’d put the hatch lock keys!

The birds have been stretching and flapping their wings for a little while now and seem eager to go.

We got into hides at 4am on the 10th August and Andrew went to open the hatches. We did this when it was still gloomy as we…

The birds have been in for 5 weeks now and are looking a lot less fluffy than when they went in. Duncan Orr-Ewing, Justin Grant (RSPB) & Roy Dennis have come along to help me and Andrew fit wing tags and radios. I’m just hoping that my painted efforts look a bit better from a distance!

It takes about 30 minutes to process each bird, including taking biometrics (measuring different parts of the eagles’ bodies…

The birds have been in their cages for nearly a month now and are all starting to look and act a lot more like small eagles rather than big chicks.

For the first week the chicks spent all their time sitting on their artificial nests made of bark chippings and moss and then began venturing out onto their perches as they became stronger and more confident. The birds have a great view of the landscape out of the front of…

After spending a week lugging 8 kg of food in buckets up a hill twice a day I’m glad that we only got 15 instead of 20 chicks this year! That combined with the constant aroma of fish that surrounds me I’m glad that I now have an assistant, Andrew Cole who also works for RSPB and other staff have been extremely helpful in doing the odd babysitting stint.

The blood analyses have revealed that we have nine males…

The chicks first day in Scotland was a long one for eagles and Project Team alike. The birds were placed into large plastic pet kennels from their temporary accommodation in Norway before taking their first flight across the North Sea courtesy of the Norwegian Royal Air Force. 

For me, the day began preparing fish for their first feed! The birds’ introduction to Scotland was a hectic one being greeted by the press at RAF…