Forestry England, who along with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation are responsible for the reintroduction of White-Tailed Eagles (often referred to as Sea Eagles) on the Isle of Wight, have shared a fantastic gallery of photos captured of the birds this year (2020).
The five-year programme to reintroduce the Eagles in England began last year (in August 2019), when six juvenile white-tailed eagles were released on the Isle of Wight.
Seven more released
This summer another seven chicks were released in August after arriving on the Isle of Wight by plane.
By autumn 2020, both groups set off to explore the south of England coastline, and further afield, ahead of preparations for winter.
Photo gallery
The photos below are shared with permission from Forestry England, Ainsley Bennett, Nick Edwards, Dan Lowth and Andy Butler (as marked).
Click on images to see larger versions
More releases
Forestry England say the project is planned to continue with further releases over the next few years. It will take several years for the young birds to become established, but the hope is they will successfully breed in the future.
Roy Dennis MBE shares his reflections on the white-tailed eagle project:
2020 has been a very encouraging year for the project. It was exciting that a two–year-old female which flew north and summered in the Scottish borders found her way back to the Island and re-joined her partner of last winter.
“Another boost was the older birds learning to catch grey mullet in the estuaries, then cuttlefish in the Solent and now taking amazing flights out into the English Channel to catch fish alongside the teeming hordes of gulls.
“I really like the fact that some lucky people looked up from their gardens, during lockdown, and saw a passing eagle. Every sighting has been an encouraging personal highpoint in the year of Covid-19.
Image: © Ainsley Bennett (at top of article)
