The Irish White Tailed Sea Eagle reintroduction project: Early years

  In 2007 perhaps the most captivating conservation story of the past decade began to become a reality, bringing back the biggest bird in Europe to soar over it's former haunts, the White Tailed Sea eagle.
 I first heard of the project over the radio on my way home from school early in 2007 and was immediately perplexed with the concept that EAGLES would be released into my locality in the coming Summer months.

Admiring the pens view.

In preparation for the birds arrival the NPWS (National parks and wildlife service) constructed holding pens complete with a artificial nest which composed of a ply sheet lined with moss and boxed off to avoid any accidents. This provided the birds with some form of home comforts with an additional level of shelter. The pens also had a wide open area which was cris-crossed by burly branches to take the birds weight while they would eventually test their wing muscles in anticipation of their release in the end of August, to coincide with when the chicks would fledge from the nest in the wild. To top the pens off they were divided into at least four separate sections to divide the birds into smaller groups and even had fist sized holes covered over with a sleeve or leg from an old pair of pants! to ensure that the birds would not associate people with food as this would cause problems for the birds in the later years. The location of these pens remain a secret but are firmly in the heart of Killarney National park.

 In the early years of the project the birds were fed an exquisite mixture of 'surf n turf' which consisted of Red Deer hearts among other parts and the remains of Cod, Monk fish and other fish depending on availability. But this varied diet turned to mainly fish orientated menu in the latter years of the project.

    Two chicks on a makeshift nest.
 As already mentioned the birds would be released by mid to late August to coincide with when a wild chick would leave the nest. This is due largely to the fact that it takes the entire Summer for each chick to build up enough strength in their wings to support their body weight during flight.
 In the first year of the project 15 chicks were taken from various nests around the Norwegian coastline and surrounding islands. Each chick or eaglet was taken from nests that housed two chicks, a harsh reality in the natural world is if things come in twos or more it simply is a strategy to ensure that at least one individual survives especially in predatory birds where the larger sibling uses it's size to have the first go at any food brought into the nest, this results in the smaller chick becoming more feeble and unable to take in enough food which results in the bird being unable to fend for itself, so in a sense because one young bird was removed from per availing nest, the likely hood of both chicks surviving was greatly heightened!. A key concept during this phase was to maintain a 50/50 ratio between males and the larger females to avoid any future issues of having too many birds of the same gender as this would be of no use during the wild breeding stage of the project.
 The chicks were kept in a converted Norwegian barn during the collecting stage and once the quota of birds was reached they were carefully loaded into individual dog carriers and flown to Kerry on the projects own chartered plane!
 Once in the Kingdom the birds were met in 2007 with a placard of farmers showing their opposition towards the project at Kerry airport with the unwarranted fear that these large birds would pluck young lambs off of the counties countryside. But beyond this minor negativity the birds were ushered to the park in a convoy of vehicle and aptly placed in their new home in anticipation of their eventual freedom in the following months.
 I will follow on from this with the further trials and tribulations of this captivating project and my own experiences with these mighty birds over the past few years.