We had an incredible amount of volunteer support this season with over 40 individuals giving up their time for our nest watch surveillance scheme. The value of an additional 80 eyes and ears is not something to be scoffed at.
From April to August individuals booked their slot in the hide to do their bit and help protect our first breeding pair of white-tailed eagles in Scotland in over 200 years. Elizabeth, one of our…
A 2011 released white-tailed eagle from east Scotland has recently made an appearance on the Isle of Skye!
Red L stayed in Fife for seven months after her release before making her way to highland Perthshire where her radio signal was detected near loch Tummel. Three months later, she was photographed on the Ardnamurchan peninsula. In June 2012 she arrived in Skye for the first time. Since then she has been to Mull where…
Explore the coastal path from Dundee to Broughty Ferry for stunning views of the Firth of Tay. Whilst walking or cycling along this section you will come across our sculpture installed this spring. This was an exciting art collaboration with Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and Dundee City Council. It was made possible by additional funding from Heritage Lottery Fund. Keep an eye on our events page for October…
Meet David, Rachel and Daniel our recent SRUC student placements and hear what they had to say about their two weeks volunteering with us this summer...
David
There’s work placements, and then there’s work placements with the RSPB on the East Scotland Sea Eagles project! Hands down, my favourite moment was when this year’s chick fledged. Witnessing the ‘little’ guy stretching his wings outside the nest for the very…
The guessing is now over... Incase you didn't hear we are thrilled to share the news that our sea eagle chick has fledged!
Another snapshot by Amy Downes
Here he is looking remarkably relaxed, the falconry hood was used to keep him calm during the wing tagging process. We posted a few other photo's from the ringing in July, click here to see them.
Remember if you do get a good glimpse of a
…Come and discover the story of the East Scotland Sea Eagles with RSPB staff and volunteers. We are running a programme of family-friendly activities throughout the summer so you can follow the sea eagle tale through its highs and lows. There will be updates on how this year’s chick is getting on and we also have exclusive video footage gathered over the past seven years of the reintroduction project.
The programme includes…
Following on from our last blog post with the exciting news about the successful sea eagle nest for the second year running we can now confirm more details. The breeding pair (Turquoise 1 and Z) are the same pair that raised the chick (White 1) last year. White 1 was the first chick to fledge in the east coast of Scotland in over 200 years, see here for a reminder.
Meet the Parents
Photo taken by: Raymond Leinster
…Since Rhian's post in April on the nest watch volunteers there has been a lot of activity in the project...
We are absolutely thrilled to have a white-tailed sea eagle nest this year - this is the second successful breeding attempt in East Scotland and a very exciting time for the partnership project! The initial six nest watch volunteers were crucial in helping us to set up the surveillance scheme and we now have over…
Back in February, project volunteer Murray Baird picked up a mortality signal for a 2011 released male white-tailed eagle, Red T, whilst radio tracking. An intense team effort with a little expert help from RSPB’s investigations team lead to the discovery of his carcase buried under several inches of snow below a wind turbine.
Every white-tailed eagle carcase that is recovered is sent to the Scotland’s Rural College…
Last month a team of East Scotland Sea Eagles volunteers went on a training weekend to Mull to learn all about nesting eagles and nest protection. With east of Scotland released birds now beginning to settle, and after the success of last year’s nest, it’s important we all learnt what to look for and how to protect them as best we can for the future. Thanks to funding from Heritage Lottery Fund, we were able to take six…
We managed to capture this fascinating and hilarious bit of interaction between our 2013 fledgling and his father during the autumn. Looks like this youngster will do well!
It’s been over 5 months since 13White1 fledged the nest in Fife, and summer feels like ages ago! Despite this, our juvenile hasn’t ventured that far yet, but with the next breeding season about to start, it won’t be long until he’s moved on by his…
Last week, RSPB staff and volunteers pulled down the aviaries that housed the young eagles for the East Scotland Sea Eagle release project. The 10 aviaries were built especially for the project in 2007 by Gilles and Mackay-a shed company in Errol, in time for the first cohort of eagles being flown in to East Scotland from Norway. The aviaries measured 3m by 3m and contained a “nest platform” and big perches for the birds…
Here is a beautifully written account by Sarah of how she came accross the nest in Fife. Sarah has been a dedicated and enthusiastic volunteer on the east Scotland sea Eagle project since 2009.
"It was a glorious day and even though both Rhian and I were probably secretly hoping for some sort of nesting behaviour when she sent me off to 'see what they were up to' it was never mentioned and I never thought for one…
After months of anticipation, I can finally announce that the first white-tailed eagle chick has fledged from a nest in the east of Scotland in over 200 years!
A pair of four-year old birds (released in 2009) nested and successfully raised a single chick in a Forestry Commission wood in Fife.
Project volunteer Sarah Underwood found the nest whilst radio tracking in May, and the nest has been monitored closely since…
Some of you may have seen the recent story in the media regarding the first breeding attempt made by white-tailed eagles in the east of Scotland. Here is a link to David Millar's article on the BBC website on Thursday the 13th of June.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-22872502
Tracking the east coast sea eagles can be challenging at the best of times. Despite the equipment that we have able to detect a transmitter from up to 50km away, the “undulating” Scottish landscape provides topographical barriers that prevent signals from being detected....unless you’re above it!!
This cunning method of tracking the birds has been used before, and is extremely useful in covering large…
On Boxing day, birders in Unst in Shetland reported seeing an immature white-tailed sea eagle with two colour rings. The rings looked very different from those used on the west coast of Scotland and certainly looked different from the single silver ring fitted to the east coast sea eagles. Colour rings were only used on the east coast in 2008 when licensing restrictions meant we couldn’t use wing tags to identify the…
2012 has been another interesting year for the project. We were lucky to have more funding from HLF and LEADER for this year’s translocation to go ahead and to fund two fantastic new posts on the project-Meriem Kayoueche Reeve as “SEEVIEWS Community Engagement Officer” and Heather Richards as “Sea Eagle Project Assistant”. They both worked incredibly hard and contributed enormously to the project. Meriem’s work made new…
We recently received some very sad news regarding an Irish released white-tailed eagle that became a bit of a celebrity during his visit to east Scotland last year (see here).
Male tag “3”, affectionately nicknamed “Irish Brian” by his Scottish followers was released in County Kerry in August 2010 and spent is first winter in Kerry and along the coast of west Cork.
He then appeared on the Banffshire…
Finally, as predicted by many, the snow has arrived and so have the white-tailed eagles on Loch Leven!! And not surprisingly, it’s the usual suspects that have turned up. Turquoise “H” (wing tag), a 2009 female appeared on Reed Bower Island on the 4th of December, soon to be followed by another bird yesterday.
Thanks to Karen Hartnell for reporting the sighting and for being quick with her camera to…
Last week, Scottish Natural Heritage hosted their Species Action Framework conference in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh to celebrate the end of their five year programme of species work that they have supported. The East Scotland Sea Eagle project was funded through the Species Action Framework, and a presentation was given at the conference outlining the work that has been done and about the future of the project…
We received some great news last week that the white-tailed eagle that was rescued from the north Aberdeenshire coast almost a year ago has returned to Ireland! See previous blog here.
The 2010 bird with the wing tags white/blue “3” was detected through radio tracking back in county Kerry after being released from Fife in December 2011. He had only been seen on one occasion since by staff at Drumpelier country park before…
The 2012 cohort of east coast white-tailed eagles have been in the wild for over two weeks already! Since their release, we have been maintaining a food dump at the release site to help them get started.
In the wild, when the young birds fledge, the adults will regularly provision them with the odd fish or piece of carrion here and there until they can confidently hunt independently. As there are no adult birds in the area…
