It’s been six months since the six White Tailed Eagles were released on the Isle of Wight and in that time one sadly passed away, one has completely disappeared, one is living in Oxford with Red Kites and three, have thankfully, settled on the Island.
There have been many sightings of the juvenile Sea Eagles over the last few months, but we loved this one above shared by Jim Baldwin to the Isle of Wight Nature Facebook Group.
Encounter with audacious Crow
The shot alone provides a great size comparison, but the story behind it gave us, and probably others, a little chuckle when we read how the cheeky Crow decided to tweak the Eagle’s tail and quickly hop away.
Jim explained,
“While I was covering a bird survey yesterday I had another encounter with our male White-tailed Eagle, G2_74.
“A Carrion Crow audaciously came very close to him which gave me the opportunity to photograph them together for a size comparison. Hopefully this might help if you see one on the ground or in a tree and help to avoid misidentifying a Buzzard as both raptor species regularly attract the attention of crows. The eagle is a metre tall!
“It was interesting to watch that the crow tried to tweak the eagle’s tail and then quickly hopped down into one of the channels behind where they were stood. He obviously decided it was safer in the trenches than on the battlefield. At that point the eagle departed.”
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More wonderful shots
Ainsley Bennett has also been lucky in capturing great photos of the Eagles. His latest shows the two Eagles who have settled together playing in the sky, along with another shot of one of the Eagles alongside a Raven – once again giving a great size comparison.
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Image: © Jim Baldwin
