Everyone's talking about white-tailed eagles, it seems. Even my taxi driver this morning in London had a view - amazingly he lives in Suffolk! And for what it's worth, he was very much in favour of the reintroduction scheme.
There are some great comments on my earlier blogs on this subject including one posted yesterday by Derek Moore which it is well worth reading for its forthright nature.
Tom Tew, the Natural England Chief Scientist, was on the radio earlier this week dispelling some myths and spreading some common sense and you can listen to it for the next few days by following this link.
On the more sceptical end of things, following Libby Purves's not very accurate article in the Times there have been two letters published on the subject in this same newspaper, one by Songbird Survival and the other by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. Neither is very positive about the reintroduction which appears to be The Times's own line since it hasn't seen fit to publish any contrary views although we know they have received some.
The Daily Telegraph published one article on the subject which took the Robin Page line - funny that, he writes for the Telegraph! - including the view that there is scant evidence that white-tailed eagles used to live in East Anglia. Well we know that is a myth.
What is lacking is any evidence to back up the claims of Robin Page and others that white-tailed eagles will do harm to livestock or wildlife. The comments posted here on my blog (some from true experts in the field) , and all the discussions I have seen, suggest that the landowners of Suffolk have nothing to fear from eagles and that the wider public have much to look forward to in respect of a beautiful bird and the economic benefit that it will bring with it in terms of tourism revenue.
On Mull, an RSPB economic study indicated that the white-tailed eagles brought in annually about £1.5m to the local economy - we would now think that figure is closer to £2m per annum.
If there is hard evidence from where white-tailed eagles currently live that they might do harm in Suffolk then let us please see that evidence now. That's one of the things that a consultation period is for. The RSPB is keen to see any evidence on this subject, but uninformed hysterical opposition to what is, let's face it, just a big bird, in the early days of the 21st century seems very sadly misplaced.
Hi
I'm belatedly picking up on the issue of winter food here, being busy with fieldwork myself. We have heard all the same arguments in East Scotland about there not being any food for the birds during the winter up here, although these soon stopped, after our birds found plenty of wintering wildfowl, rabbits and carrion as well more unexpected things like the occassional crow or heron during their first winter! a situation I believe would be replicated in Suffolk. For the East Scotland re-introduction as in previous re-introductions we maintain a food dump after release to mimic the behaviour of the adults dropping off food for the young birds whilst they learn to hunt in the first couple of months. Despite this free and easy food supply, some birds find their own wild food within the first week of release, as generalist predators there is a lot available to them. They also only eat approx 600g a day and people are also often surprised by their laziness. The East Scotland release in Fife, a busy lowland, agricultural area (that contains poultry, pheasants and free range pigs) is going well and people have got used to the birds very quickly with neighbouring farmers now asking me if the birds are ok once they start to disperse away from the release site! You can currently see 2-3 sea eagles daily at our Vane Farm nature reserve. Hopefully people will continue to look to the East Scotland project as the work on the English project continues.
Cheers, Claire.