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.
Sooty you are being a bit defensive. I really cannot agree with you about the farming community being the best conservationists. If that had been the case the enrmous nature conservation movement in Britain would have not have been necessary.
Maybe my language on the take-up by farmers of agri-environmental schemes was a shade over colourful and for that I apologise but the fact is that the take-up of these schemes is often not good and generally those that do are already keen on having wildlife on their farms.
As for conservationists thinking they know better than farmers I have to say something on this as well. I think all nature conservationists accept that farmers know well how to produce food efficiently and in many cases do make some contribution to managing for wildlife. What galls me is that having delivered that respect to the farming community they are suddenly all experts on birds and show the conservation community no respect at all.
This is the main barrier to break down. Mutual respect for each other's skills.
You accuse me of being badly informed. Well I can tell you I played quite a part in setting up prescriptions for the Broads ESA and also lobbied with farmers in Brussels to get environmentally payments for managing permanent Set-aside. I have always had a close relationship with farmers being a past trustee of FWAG and Chairman of FWAG in Wales.
The problem is that the farmers working with us on common agendas are still too few.