Sea eagles released on Scotland's east coast.

21/06/2007 00:00:00 August release
November 2007. The birds were released between the 10th and 14th of August. Bird H soon made himself known landing on a roadside dyke where he remained for the rest of the day to the amazement of passing drivers and cyclists! For the first week all birds remained within 1km square of the release site, taking practice flights on a nearby sloping pasture field. A food dump is maintained on top of the cages to mimic the supplementary feeding that parents would provide for their fledglings in the wild. Like their wild counterparts on the West coast the birds dispersed at different ages. Two males F and N headed north up the coast after a couple of weeks. F spent a couple of weeks at Stonehaven and has been in the St Fergus area since late September where hes been seen eating pink footed geese. Bird N spent some time at Montrose basin where many people were able to see him and was seen eating a common gull.

Other birds started taking exploratory trips through Fife and Tayside. A social group of 6 birds remained near the release site until late October, when they too stopped using the food dump and moved off singly and in pairs. The birds movements are monitored regularly through radio-tracking and members of the public are also providing a lot of useful information and over 300 sightings had been recorded by November. The birds are now spread over a large area and can be seen in Flanders Moss, the Carse of Gowrie, the Montrose basin, St Fergus and along the firths of Tay and Forth. The birds are exploring their new environment often spending only a week or two in each place before moving on and will continue to wander until settling on territories when 3-5 years old. Public response so far has been extremely positive with many people ecstatic to see eagles back on the East coast.

Recent reports show that the eagles have dispersed widely, with reports of sightings from Sterling, Dunfermline, Argaty and St Fergus.

Report sightings
Please report any sightings giving date, time, location and wing tag if possible to: eastscotlandseaeagles@rspb.org.uk Sea Eagle Project
2007 saw an historic moment in Scottish ornithology – the reintroduction of White-tailed Sea Eagles to the East of Scotland. In a partnership project between RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland, 15 birds were released from a site in Fife during August. The East Scotland Sea Eagle Project is the third phase of a successful reintroduction programme to return Sea eagles to Scotland that began in 1975. A total of 141 birds were released on Rum and later Wester Ross. The return of sea eagles to Mull, Skye and other parts of western Scotland has been one of the outstanding conservation success stories of recent times, and 2007 was a record year with 42 pairs raising 34 chicks.

Shot to extinction in Scotland in 1918
Prior to the re-introduction, the last native pair bred on Skye in 1916 and the last bird an albino female shot in Shetland in 1918 making the species extinct in the British Isles. Persecution had driven the sea eagles away from East Scotland much earlier, and by the mid 1800s, the birds were confined to wild and remote areas on Scotland's west coast.

Five year plan
If left to their own devices, the west coast populations might take decades before they begin to re-occupy their former haunts in the eastern lowlands. For this reason, the east coast project will continue over a further four years, with up to 20 chicks a year being brought from Norway and released, so that an east coast population will become established. Although people have come to associate the birds with the isolated, mountainous west coast of Scotland, away from human habitation, in the majority of their world range the birds' natural habitat is coastal areas, lowland wetlands and estuarine and riparian areas with shallow, productive waters. Such habitats contain a wealth of year round food for the birds including wildfowl, gulls, rabbits and carrion. This kind of habitat is widely available on Scotland’s east coast, so the new birds should fare extremely well once they become established. In the past, lowland Scots would have been far more familiar with the sea eagle than our now iconic golden eagle.

Chicks collected from Norway
The 15 unrelated chicks were collected from nests containing twins in central western Norway by the Norwegian Ornithological Society and the 9 males and 6 females were flown by the Norwegian Air Force to RAF Kinloss in June. After some intense media scrutiny, the birds were driven to the release site. Here the birds were kept in pairs and trios in large aviaries containing perches and artificial nests until they were big enough to fly. During their time in captivity they were fed a diet of fresh and frozen fish, venison and rabbit. All food is placed through a small hatch as it is vital that the birds do no see humans and associate them with food. The site location is kept secret for the same reason, as we do not want people walking past the mesh fronted cages, which are vital for the birds to learn their landscape. The open aspect also introduced them to some native fauna and they had lively exchanges with a nearby nesting Green woodpecker and passing buzzards and ospreys!

Wing tags and radio transmitters
Prior to release, each bird was fitted with white wing tags with an individual letter/number and a small radio backpack. The radios can transmit for up to five years giving us a unique insight into the birds’ dispersal, use of habitats, survival and the eventual establishment of breeding territories.