Given the hoo-ha whipped up about the possibility of reintroducing white-tailed eagles back to East Anglia I was interested in seeing the lengths to which Americans go to celebrate their national bird - the bald eagle (a close relative of the white-tailed eagle).
Around this time of year there are eagle days in Iowa, Idaho, Oklahoma and Illinois. In Utah , Connecticut and Wisconsin you have to wait until February, South Dakota goes for March, Alaska opts for November and that's where I stopped looking. But the tone of all these events is highly celebratory. These local communities are chuffed to bits that they have eagles that have made such a good population recovery and you get the impression that the more bald eagles there are, the happier people are.
And these are people who are living with eagles - they might be expected to know a thing or two about them!
Surprised Derek Moore in all your talk about landowners wanting sterile conditions for game birds you did not advocate the obvious thing to perhaps get them on board.It is obviously unfair for landowners in parts of Scotland with Eagles flying over their land to get compensation and the same deal not offered to East Anglian landowners.Surely everyone must be able to see that it is the only fair solution and if they still object then and only then has anyone reason to gripe.
Can tell you that until compensation offered to crofters on Scottish west coast and on Skye the crofters were demanding Sea Eagle removal so this is nothing new.
Think it a better idea to persuade them with facts than say derogatory things about them and get them entrenched because if these Eagles nest on their land we may have to go all humble cap in hand and please no one say they couldn't stop us doing whatever we wanted because when they start nesting it will be a massive job for lots of volunteers for 6 months every year.For certain we would not want strong opposition at that point at least lets persuade them that even if they don't particularly like it they won't damage the chance of it being a success.