Roy Dennis’ latest book – The Highland Cow and the Horse of the Woods – looks at how to prevent the second extinction of the capercaillie, the distinctive woodland grouse of Scotland.
You can purchase your copy on our website here.
Meanwhile, Mark Avery’s review of the book is below.
A record three White-tailed Eagle chicks have successfully fledged from two wild nests in England. The chicks were reared by White-tailed Eagles released in a 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 and G466 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 fledged 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.
Roy Dennis OBE, Founder of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, said:
“We are delighted to see another year of successful breeding and that two pairs have now reached this key stage. This is a long-term project, and it will take some years before the population is fully restored but the progress made over the last year has been incredibly encouraging. We have some well-established pairs and two that are actively breeding. We hope to build on this progress, and I’m really pleased that we have been able to release an additional 8 birds this year to further boost the population.”
“I always find it particularly rewarding to see so much support for these magnificent birds and the positive impact they are having on so many people’s relationship with the natural world.”
Steve Egerton-Read, White-Tailed Eagle Project Officer for Forestry England, said:
“We have been patiently monitoring these nests for many months and hoping they would be successful. It is always such an exciting time but also incredibly nerve wracking! This was especially the case for the pair of eagles in Dorset who were first time parents. It was an incredible moment when we caught our first glimpse of that tiny fluffy chick in the nest, but equally, it is anxious time as the parents get to grips with what they need to do. Ultimately, it has been so rewarding to see this pair of eagles, often spotted in and around Dorset, care for the chick all the way through to it fledging the nest. Now it won’t be long until he is starting his own journey and hopefully one day, he will breed somewhere in southern England.
“Returning lost species like the white-tailed eagle is a key part of Forestry England’s approach to restoring biodiversity and helping nature to recover. We hope that in years to come these iconic birds will become a much more common sight, inspiring future generations and deepening their connection with nature.”
White-tailed Eagles are Britain’s largest birds of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres and were once widespread across England. Human persecution caused their extinction, with the last pair breeding in southern England in 1780. In 2019, Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began reintroducing these iconic birds to the English landscape.
To date, 45 young white-tailed eagles have been released. This includes eight birds released this summer from the team’s base on the Isle of Wight.
The reintroduction of White-tailed Eagles is conducted under licence from Natural England, the Government’s wildlife licensing authority. Birds for release are collected from wild nests in Scotland under licence from NatureScot before being transported to England with valuable support from Civil Air Support. The birds are subsequently reared and released on the Isle of Wight, all birds released by the project are fitted with satellite tags.
White-tailed Eagles are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). Disturbing, destroying or interfering with them and their nests are criminal offences. The specific locations of this year’s nests are not being disclosed for the welfare of the birds and to prevent any disturbance to them or the landowner this year or if the birds return to breed at the same location.
Forestry England have recently produced a series of short-films about the White-tailed Eagle project. You can watch them all below.
At last, we have a Bird Observatory again on Fair Isle – risen from the ashes of the disastrous fire six long years ago. It was wonderful to be in the new building early in June for the Trustees annual meeting and to welcome the first of the visitors. Fair Isle was looking it’s best with calm sunny days to explore the island. Bird migration was amazing with nightjar and Scop’s owl both ringed by the observatory staff. Puffins, fulmars and gannet were all much in evidence on the cliffs, but the counts of kittiwakes and shags were disastrous. It’s 66 years since I went to Fair Isle as an assistant warden and it was so great to be back again, especially because many of the islanders came up to examine the new building and for a celebratory party. So, we’re back in business and everyone is welcome – you don’t need to be an experienced birder – and the new observatory is so welcoming. Why not give it a try?
See www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk for details – you will not be disappointed.
Spring is always an interesting time of the year for the White-tailed Eagle project that we run in partnership with Forestry England, based on the Isle of Wight. Satellite tracking has shown that the eagles often make long distance movements as the weather improves and days lengthen from February onwards, and this year has been no exception, as Tim Mackrill explains.
The youngest eagles tend to be the most nomadic, but older birds also continue to wander extensively until they pair up, at which point they become resident in a well-defined home range. Undoubtedly the most interesting flight this spring was made by G542, a female released on the Isle of Wight in 2021, who remains unpaired. She became the third translocated eagle to visit mainland Europe, crossing the English Channel on 13th March and spending just over a month exploring Northern France, before returning to her favoured areas in Southern England in mid-April.
Like many of the unpaired eagles G542 has divided her time between various favoured locations in Southern England over the past twelve months, including East Sussex, Colliford Lake on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, and also the Isle of Wight. On 13th March G542 headed east along the South Coast. The satellite data shows she spent time circling over the sea between Hastings and Dungeness, and then, as she approached Folkestone, she headed more purposefully out into the English Channel, aided by a helpful northerly tailwind. It is likely that from her altitude of 528 metres on a bright clear day, she could see the French coast, and she eventually made landfall at Bounlogne-sur-Mer, having flown 55km in 75 minutes.
G542 subsequently travelled south-west along the Normandy coast, just as another translocated eagle, G818, had done last spring. She continued west across the Cherbourg peninsular, and reached Brittany on 17thMarch. It seemed she was heading for the west coast of France, but next day, as she approached Ploërmel, she made a 90 degree turn to the north, and travelled back to the north coast near Saint-Brieuc. Once there she changed direction again, following the coast east back into Normandy.
After spending three days along the River Douve on the Cherbourg peninsular, G542 continued east along the Normandy coast on 23rd March, before cutting inland towards Paris, and then north-east to Beauvais. She was now a considerable distance inland, but on 29th March she headed north-west from Beauvais towards Dieppe, and then followed the coast north to Le Touquet, just south of Bounlogne-sur-Mer. It seemed she was going to attempt the return crossing, but with winds not favourable she remained on the Normandy coast on 30th, and then began heading south-west again on 31st.
On 5th April G542 reached the most northern tip of the Cherbourg peninsular, at Pointe des Groins. She was now almost due south of the Isle of Wight, but a 105km sea crossing would be dangerous for a heavy bird like a White-tailed Eagle to undertake. Perhaps recognising this, she moved south again, passing Caen on 7thApril before travelling another 100km south to Mamers on 10th. She made the return flight back to Caen on 11th, and then began moving north-east through Normandy once again.
After roosting near Blangy-sur-Bresle on the River Seine on 13th April, G542 continued north the next day, passing over Bounlogne-sur-Mer at 11:30 and then setting off back across the English Channel from Wissant, at 12:20. The 34km crossing from Wissant to Dover took just 35 minutes to complete with favourable tailwinds. Once back in England, G542 returned to a favoured area in East Sussex, having flown 250km that day.
Overall G542 flew 3277km (2036 miles) in just over a month. Her flight was very similar to that of G818 last year, who 2062 km (1281 miles) in 22 days between 22nd March and 8th April. The flights of the two birds are shown in the map below.
Although G542’s French flight was different to her movements in previous years, many of the White-tailed Eagles we have tracked return to the same sites in successive years. An excellent example of this is G625, the chick which fledged from a nest in southern England in 2023. This young male spent the majority of last summer in the Cairngorms National Park, predominantly favouring the Angus Glens. He eventually returned to the South Coast in early September and then spent the winter at various locations, including Chichester Harbour and Poole Harbour, where he regularly mixed with translocated eagles.
This spring G625 headed north again on 13th April, and arrived back in the Cairngorms seven days later, on 20th April. Once back in the Cairngorms, G625 spent several days in the company of G641, a male White-tailed Eagle that we translocated to the Isle of Wight in 2023. G641 had also spent summer 2024 in the Cairngorms before returning to the South Coast over the winter, frequenting many of the same areas as G625. This spring G641 headed north again on 31st March, travelling through central and north-west England, before arriving back in the Cairngorms on 7th April. He subsequently returned to the same area, in the east of the mountains, that he had favoured the previous summer. He was joined by G625 on 26th April, and they remained together for several days, before going their separate ways in early May: G625 back to the Angus Glens, and G641 remaining further north.
It is likely the two birds will remain in the Scottish Highlands for the rest of the summer, before returning to the South Coast in early autumn. By that stage that will be at the age when they may begin to pair up, and may even be a potential mate for G542, or perhaps G818. The latter bird has recently joined the two younger males in the Scottish Highlands, having spent all winter on the South Coast, usually favouring Christchurch Harbour and the Avon Valley. She too has also returned to areas she visited in previous years. It will be fascinating to follow their progress over the coming months.
Very many thanks to everyone who has made donations to the Foundation and the White-tailed Eagle project in the past few months. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you would like to donate to our work, then you can do so via the link below.
It is now five years since we began the White-tailed Eagle Project on the Isle of Wight in partnership with Forestry England. In that time we have released a total of 37 young eagles and the project reached a major milestone last year when a pair of translocated birds, G405 and G471, reared a chick for the first time. Two further chicks fledged from the same site this year and three other territorial pairs are now established in southern England, including on the Isle of Wight and at Poole Harbour in Dorset. We have been extremely encouraged at how well the birds have fitted into the English landscape. Our extensive study on the diet of the reintroduced eagles has shown that fish becomes increasingly important as the birds mature, with grey mullet and other seasonally abundant species becoming favoured prey.
Our existing licences allow us to translocate birds to the Isle of Wight for another two years. Following the initial successes, it is our view that additional small-scale releases in other areas would be extremely beneficial to the restoration of the English White-tailed Eagle population. The first proposed location is Exmoor National Park, which has been visited by seven different young eagles since 2019. You can read more about the first five years of the White-tailed Eagle project and our plans for the future here.
Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) is launching a white-tailed eagle public perception survey and engagement events, to share how it’s partnering with the ‘White Tailed Eagle Reintroduction Programme’ in England led by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation RDWF and Forestry England, to support conservation of the species.
From 2019 onwards the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England have been working to restore white-tailed eagles to southern England, through a reintroduction project based on the Isle of Wight, which is licensed by Natural England and NatureScot. A total of 37 eagles have been released to date and in 2023 a pair bred successfully for the first time. The same pair reared a further two chicks this year, and three other territorial pairs of eagles are now established on the South Coast. It is hoped that this project will lead to the establishment of 6-8 pairs of white-tailed eagles within 60km of the Isle of Wight. To support the existing population of these incredible birds the project aims to carry out a small number of additional releases of white-tailed eagles and is working with ENPA to achieve this in the Exmoor National Park. The hope is that these birds will boost the emerging population of white-tailed eagles along the south coast of England.
The area has been identified as a key location after the presence here of several of the white-tailed eagles released by the project. Satellite tracking shows precise locations of the birds and, over the past few years, Exmoor has become a white-tailed eagles hotspot, with seven different birds visiting. Many people have also been lucky enough to see the birds and logged their sightings.
White-tailed eagles formerly bred on the coast of Exmoor and the extensive areas of coastal woodland and abundant marine fish species, such as grey mullet, provide exceptional breeding habitat. Extensive research on the diet of the Isle of Wight birds has shown that they favour fish as they mature and begin breeding.
Zoe Smith of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, and originally from the local area, said: “We have used the satellite tracking data, which provides extremely detailed information on the movements of all the birds we have released on the Isle of Wight, to identify the best areas to support the establishing population through a series of small-scale releases. This has shown that Exmoor is one of the key sites. We think that releasing a small cohort of up to 20 birds over three years would help reinforce the English population by aiding the geographical expansion, and we would like to know what local people think of this idea.
Eagles from the Isle of Wight have been frequent visitors to Exmoor over the past five years and we know that many people have enjoyed seeing them. We can see from how people have reacted to the eagles over recent years, that once they get to know the behaviour of the birds it dispels any concerns surrounding this species. There’s a common fear for example that white-tailed eagles could predate livestock, but there’s been no record of this since the Isle of Wight project began. As their other common name ‘sea eagle’ suggests, they prefer to hunt fish but will also eat birds (including gulls and corvids), small mammals and dead animals (carrion). For young birds, carrion makes up a large proportion of their diet but, by their third year, white-tailed eagles will gravitate towards wetland sites, home to their preferred diet of fish.”
Ali Hawkins Senior Ecologist for ENPA said:
“White-tailed eagles are an important flagship species in coastal ecosystems and used to be found right across the UK but are now one of our rarest species and listed as a species of Conservation Concern. Working with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation over the last few years we have been doing a lot of liaison with local landowners and shoots regarding white-tailed eagles already visiting Exmoor. With its remote wooded coastline, deep incised valleys and abundance of food it’s easy to see why the eagles are choosing to spend time here and people have greatly enjoyed seeing them.
We’d really like to hear what people think about white-tailed eagles in our public perception survey (need link) and invite everyone to come to our events and to talk with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England who are experts on these birds, and our Exmoor National Park conservation staff and rangers.
We think that reinforcing the population of these spectacular birds would greatly support our work to make Exmoor richer in wildlife and return an important species to our National Park. Moreover, evidence from projects in Scotland and the South of England shows that eagle tourism is extremely popular and could be of great benefit to the Exmoor economy, especially in winter.”
Steve Egerton-Read from Forestry England said: “White-tailed eagles are a truly iconic species. The positive reaction that people have had to them since the reintroduction project began in 2019 has been incredible. It demonstrates how returning lost species like this can reconnect people with nature and help support its recovery. We’d encourage anyone interested in finding out more about the project to come along to one of these events and take part in the survey”.
The Exmoor public perception survey can be found here.
Exmoor National Park are holding white-tailed eagle information events and family activities at National Park Centres in:
Dunster – Friday 22 November, 5-8pm
Dunster Steep, TA24 6SE
What 3 Words: powering.ringside.obstinate
Lynmouth – Saturday 23 November, 11am-2pm
Lynmouth Pavilion, The Esplanade, EX35 6EQ
What 3 Words: since.tells.repelled
Two white-tailed eagle chicks have fledged from a nest in England, only the second time these iconic birds have bred here for over 240 years. The chicks were reared by a pair of white-tailed eagles released by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation’s project to return this lost species to England.
The chicks, both males, are the offspring of two white-tailed eagles released by the project in 2020. The parent birds – female G405 and male G471 – were the same pairing that last year successfully raised a single male chick (G625), the first white-tailed eagle to be born in southern England since 1780.
The two chicks – G636 and G637 – 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 last year’s chick (G625) as he has explored widely across the UK travelling as far as the north of Scotland.
White-tailed eagles typically reach breeding maturity at around four or five years old. From the birds released by the project, four pairs have now formed and established territories in southern England. It is hoped that these other pairs will breed in future years.
Roy Dennis OBE, Founder of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, said:
“Restoring a breeding population in southern England, where the species was once widespread, has been our ultimate goal. So, to see this second year of breeding success is really encouraging. It is still early days, but this is a very significant milestone.
“We are always so heartened to see the support of so many people towards these magnificent birds and the positive reactions those lucky enough to have seen one have. This success demonstrates our ability to restore nature, including very large iconic species; nature recovery requires even greater effort from us all.”
Steve Egerton-Read, White-Tailed Eagle Project Officer for Forestry England, said:
“We have spent the last few months closely watching this pair of eagles, hoping that they would successfully breed again this year. Things looked promising throughout the spring, but you never know if they will ultimately be successful. When we first saw two chicks appear in the nest it was tremendously exciting! For both to make it to fledging demonstrates the abundance of food in this landscape and the suitability of southern England for these birds.
“Restoring lost species like white-tailed eagles is a critical element in nature recovery and a key part of Forestry England’s work within the nation’s forests. We hope this project can help inspire the restoration of our natural heritage. We will continue to work to re-establish these birds as a breeding species across the region, with the aim that future generations will be able to enjoy seeing them as a regular sight in the skies above where they live.”
White-tailed eagles are Britain’s largest birds of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres and were once widespread across England. Human persecution caused their extinction, with the last pair breeding in southern England in 1780. In 2019, Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began reintroducing these iconic birds to the English landscape.
To date, 37 young white-tailed eagles have been released by the reintroduction project This includes eight birds released this summer from the team’s base on the Isle of Wight. Currently, 22 of these birds have survived. An additional three young white-tailed eagles have now been bred in the wild by the released birds.
The reintroduction of white-tailed eagles is conducted under licence from Natural England, the Government’s wildlife licensing authority. Birds for release are collected from wild nests in Scotland under licence from NatureScot before being transported to England with valuable support from Civil Air Support. The birds are subsequently reared and released on the Isle of Wight, all birds released by the project are fitted with satellite tags.
The location of this year’s nest, on private land with no public access, is not being disclosed for the welfare of the birds and to prevent any disturbance to them or the landowner either this year or if the birds return to breed at the same location.
One of the questions we are frequently asked about the White-tailed Eagle project, which we run in partnership with Forestry England, is what do the birds eat?
The White-tailed Eagle is a generalist predator, typically favouring the most seasonally abundant prey. Various diet studies across Europe have shown that fish is favoured when it is available, but that a variety of birds and smaller mammals are also taken according to their availability. Most of these diet studies are based on prey remains collected from occupied nests at the end of the breeding season, including this excellent recent one in Scotland, but this methodology typically underestimates how much fish is caught, and does not provide evidence of how prey was acquired.
We have been keen to monitor the diet of the eagles released on the Isle of Wight from the outset, and with the first pair not breeding until 2023, we have based our work on field observations. This not only provides evidence of what the birds are eating, but also how prey is acquired. The fact that every bird in the population is satellite tracked is extremely helpful in this regard, because it enables us to identify the areas favoured by the birds – including the individual trees and perches they use – and then to base our field studies at these sites. Nevertheless, it requires a huge amount of time and patience. White-tailed Eagles favour the sit-and-wait strategy and often perch for hours at a time between hunting attempts
Our research, involving more than 5000 hours of observation, has been led by Steve Egerton-Read, the White-tailed Eagle project officer from Forestry England, who is based on the Isle of Wight. We have now amassed more than 600 observations, 83% of which are in Isle of Wight, Hampshire, New Forest and West Sussex in southern England, where the first territorial pairs have become established.
We are in the process of writing this work up in a scientific paper, but in the meantime, our key findings to date are summarised below. It is also important to emphasise that there have been no cases of livestock predation since the project began.
What they eat
As expected, the eagles have a broad diet, which is illustrated in the pie chart below. Birds constitute 36%, with Canada Goose the most frequently recorded species; fish make up 25%, with both marine and freshwater species readily caught; and mammals, primarily rabbits and brown hares, account for 24%. Cuttlefish, a marine mollusc, which are abundant in the seagrass beds of the South Coast during spring and early summer when they enter the warm water to spawn, have become another key item. Cuttlefish are typically found low in the water, out of reach of White-tailed-Eagles. However, after spawning, these individuals die at the surface and then become available to foraging eagles. As a result, molluscs account for 5% of diet.
How they acquire food
Overall, the eagles prefer live caught prey, and items attained through direct predation account for 45% of the observations in our study. Carrion constitutes 21%, while piracy from other predatory birds make up 9%. If the observer did not see how an eagle attained its food, it is listed as unknown.
Changes with age
Our work has shown that White-tailed Eagle diet changes with age, which, in light of a paucity of other studies on juvenile/sub-adult birds, is a noteworthy finding. Carrion is very important for young birds in their first and second years, and they also favour mammals – particularly rabbits, when they are young. However, as they become older, they tend to gravitate towards wetland sites, where fish becomes the preferred prey item, as illustrated in the graphs below. Fish are either live caught or pirated from other piscivorous birds. Last year, when the first pair of White-tailed Eagles bred successfully, more than 50% of the prey items brought to the nest by the adults birds, G405 and G471, were fish.
During the first five years of the White-tailed Eagle project, which we run in partnership with Forestry England, we have been able to monitor the movements of the translocated eagles in great detail thanks to the Ornitela satellite tags deployed on each bird prior to release. The young eagles have proved to be highly nomadic in their early years, with a number of birds travelling to northern Scotland, and two others crossing the English Channel to continental Europe. All have later returned to the Isle of Wight and the South Coast, particularly as they approach breeding age.
Last year the project reached a significant milestone, with the first chick, G625, fledging from a wild nest. We satellite tagged the young male before he left the nest, and this allows us to follow his movements in near real time. It has been fascinating – and encouraging – that his behaviour has been very similar to the translocated birds.
After leaving his parent’s territory on 6th January, G625 dispersed to Wiltshire before moving north-east to East Anglia in late January. He spent the next two months in Norfolk and Suffolk, favouring the Brecks near Lakenheath and also an area to the north-east of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, where he was seen in the company of a colour-ringed Dutch White-tailed Eagle WN88. G625 was also observed catching fish at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Mickle Mere Nature Reserve on a number of occasions. During February the young male also spent time in North Norfolk, visiting Holkham NNR and also frequenting an area near Flitcham.
G625 left East Anglia on 26th March and flew north to the Lammermuir Hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, travelling 660km over the course of five days. Interestingly G625’s father G471 had spent the spring of his second calendar year in East Anglia, before flying north to the Southern Uplands where he remained for much of the summer. G625’s visit was more short-lived; he remained in the Lammermuirs until 11th April before heading south again, making a 667km return flight to the Brecks, again in five days, arriving in his favoured area near Lakenheath on 15th April (see map).
This time G625 did not linger in East Anglia for long and instead returned to his natal nest on 17th April, before visiting the Isle of Wight on 18th April and again on 22nd– 23rd April. His return to the South Coast was a brief one though because on 29th April he flew 299km back to North Norfolk from the Knepp estate in West Sussex.
Next day G625 continued north, heading across the Wash and then onwards through Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, before arriving in the North York Moors after a day’s flight of 234km.
G625 lingered in the North York Moors for four days before continuing further north, passing through Teeside on 5th May and then reaching the Southern Uplands near Langholm the next day. On 7th he returned to the Lammermuirs, but only spent two further days there before he was on the move again. G625 crossed the Firth of Forth just before midday on 10th, and then continued north to the Scottish Highlands. That night he roosted in a plantation south of Dufftown in the north east of the Cairngorms having flown 280km.
On 11th May G625 explored Moray, flying north towards Fochabers, before returning south into the mountains again. The young male has remained in the Cairngorms since, favouring an area in the south-east of the national park, ranging between Glen Cova and Glen Lethnot in the Angus Glens.
It will be fascinating to see how long G625 remains in northern Scotland. It is possible he will linger north of the border for the rest of the summer, as several of the translocated birds have done. In fact, G641, a male from the Isle of Lewis that we translocated to the Isle of Wight last summer, has also been in the Cairngorms since 7th May, having departed the Isle of Wight on 18th April. The two males met each other just after midday on 11th April and then roosted together that night on the Moray-Aberdeenshire border in the eastern Cairngorms, south of Bracklach. Next day G625 moved further south to the Angus Glens, while G641 has been favouring the mountains between Cabrach and Cock Bridge since. We will continue to monitor their satellite tracking data closely. The tags provide very high resolution data for both birds – a GPS location every 5 minutes – and we will report further interesting movements.
Very many thanks to everyone who has made donations to the Foundation and the White-tailed Eagle project in the past few months. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you would like to donate to our work, then you can do so via the link below.
Since the start of the White-tailed Eagle project, which we run in partnership with Forestry England, satellite tracking has shown how nomadic the young eagles can be prior to settling on a breeding territory. For example, one of the birds now established at Poole Harbour, male G463, spent two successive summers in continental Europe, before returning to the South Coast and pairing up with female G466. Up until a few weeks ago G463 was the only one of the Isle of Wight eagles to cross the English Channel, but at the end of last month G818, a female that was released in 2021, having been translocated from the Isle of Lewis, followed suit, spending just over a fortnight wandering extensively in northern France, as Tim Mackrill explains.
The bird’s flight was also featured on BBC News at Six, and you can watch the film by pressing play below.
Flight to France
Although so far unpaired, G818 has been favouring the Avon valley on the Dorset-Hampshire border in recent months and has been regularly seen catching grey mullet in Christchurch Harbour. On the morning of 22nd March she left a favoured area and then flew south across the Isle of Wight, before spending the afternoon at RSPB Brading Marshes. It is not uncommon for the young eagles to visit the Island, but they are usually seen off by the resident pair, G274 and G324, quite quickly and so it was no surprise when G818 crossed the Solent at 9:00 next morning. Once over the mainland G818 tracked east along the South Coast, passing over Brighton at 10:00, Eastbourne half an hour later, and Hastings just before 11:00.
At 12:13 she was over the sea at St Margarets Bay, just to the east of Dover, and while circling at 665 metres, would have been able to see the French coast at Calais. She flew 35 km (21 miles) across the English Channel in 30 minutes, with her altitude dropping from a high of 804 metres off the English coast to 255 metres as she made landfall west of Calais.
Once she reached France she headed south through des caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Natural Park and eventually roosted to the east of the market town of Desvres having flown 301 km (187 miles) since leaving Brading Marshes that morning.
French Explorations
G818 continued south at first light next morning, before crossing into Normandy at 12:55. She continued to track the Normandy coast for the next three days, passing Rouen at lunchtime on 25th, and Caen the next day. Eventually she then reached the wetlands of Parc des Marais du Cotentin in the Cherbourg Peninsular during the afternoon of 28th, having flown a total of 454 km (282 miles) in four days.
On the morning of 30th March G818 flew north towards the northern tip of the Cherbourg peninsular. However, she turned around as she approached Cherbourg and then headed south along the west coast. She roosted that night near Mont Saint-Michel in the south-west of Normandy having flown 189 km (117 miles).
G818 moved a few kilomteres south into Brittany on 31st March and spent the day at the wetlands of Réserve Naturelle Régionale du Marais de Sougéal. She was still there next morning and was photographed hunting wildfowl by Maude Bachet.
Heading for home?
G818 left the wetlands at 10:45 on 1st April, initially heading south-east towards Le Mans, before turning to the north-east during the afternoon. She flew 224km (139 miles) before roosting in woodland near Longny-les-Villages in the Perche Regional Natural Park. It appeared from this significant flight and change of direction, that she might be beginning to head for home.
She moved a little further north on 2nd and then remained near Verneuil d’Avre et d’lton on 3rd. Then, on 4th, she made a more purposeful flight north, travelling 77 km (48 miles) to the River Seine just to the west of Rouen in Normady. She lingered beside the Seine all day on 5th and then during the morning of 6th, before moving 32 km (20 miles) north that afternoon and roosting in the grounds of Château de Cany.
Next morning G818 left the Château at 9:30 and then followed the Normandy coast north-east, passing over Dieppe at 10:30 and eventually reaching Wissant just to the west of Calais at 13:10. Conditions obviously weren’t conducive to a Channel crossing because she headed back inland, before roosting in an area she had first visited on 23rd March, after a day’s flight of 227 km (141 miles).
Next morning, on 8th April, G818 flew back to the coast and then time headed out across the English Channel, 11 km south-west of where she had made landfall on 23rd March. She took 27 minutes to make the crossing, arriving over Dover at an altitude of 109 metres at 12:40.
She then continued north, stopping briefly on the Isle of Sheppey at 14:15 before heading west and skirting around the south side of London before roosting south of Oxted in Kent, having flown 196 km (122 miles) from northern France. Over the course of the next three days she continued west through the South Downs, and then the New Forest, before arriving at a favoured location in the Avon valley at 08:30 on 12th. She had flown a total of 2062 km (1281 miles) in 22 days. A remarkable flight for a young eagle learning her place in the world.
Very many thanks to everyone who has made donations to the Foundation and the White-tailed Eagle project in the past few months. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you would like to donate to our work, then you can do so via the link below.
