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https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/first-wild-white-tailed-eagle-chick-to-fledge-in-dorset-for-over-240-years/>
"A record THREE White-tailed Eagle chicks have successfully fledged from TWO
wild nests in England. The chicks were reared by White-tailed Eagles that were
released as part of the ground breaking conservation project by Forestry
England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to return this lost species to
England.
Two different pairs of White-tailed Eagles successfully bred this year. This
included the first chick in Dorset for over 240 years, and two chicks raised in
a nest in Sussex.
A single male chick (G834) fledged from a nest in Dorset. The parent birds –
G463 (male) and G466 (female) released in 2020 – settled in the county and
paired up in 2023. This is their first successful breeding attempt and made
more remarkable by the fact that the male adult bird has only one leg after it
lost this four years ago.
Two chicks, both females (G841 and G842), fledged this year from a nest in
Sussex. Both are the offspring of two white-tailed eagles released by the
project in 2020. The parent birds – G405 and G471 – were the same pairing that
bred in 2023 and 2024.
This year’s successful breeding brings the number of these iconic birds born in
the wild through the project to six. In 2023 a single chick was born, the first
in England since the eighteenth century when the species was lost due to
persecution. A further two chicks were born in the summer of 2024.
All of the chicks are fitted with satellite tags so that the project team can
track their progress. Over the last year they have used satellite data to
follow the fledglings as they have explored widely across the UK.
White-tailed Eagles typically reach breeding maturity at around four or five
years old. From the birds released by the project, three pairs have formed and
established territories in southern England. Several of the younger birds are
also present in potential future breeding areas typically close to freshwater
wetlands or the coast, where the birds can catch fish, which is their preferred
food. In time, it is hoped that a population of 6-10 breeding pairs will become
established within 60 kilometres of the release site on the Isle of Wight."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
