White-tailed Sea Eagle, South Kerry, July 2013 (M.O'Clery).
Allan Mee of the White-tailed Sea Eagle Reintroduction Project will be looking for volunteers this coming spring and summer to monitor some of the nesting eagles. Details of a Workshop in Killarney will be announced shortly and volunteers are welcome to attend. Watch this space.
In the meantime, here's how things stand with the Reintroduction Project so far.
• One of the two chicks fledged in 2013 has recently died (shot). A third chick from a nest near Killarney didn't fledge but died at 9 weeks when the nest collapsed.
• There are at present 24 eagles that have paired.
• There are 20 eagles in Kerry including seven pairs.
• One of the birds released in Killarney has paired with a bird in Scotland.
• Of the100 birds brought from Norway, only about 50 are accounted for.
• 29 are confirmed dead, poisoning being the main culprit. Three were killed by wind turbines.
On a positive note, there has been no confirmed poisoning in Kerry for over two years although three birds found dead in Kerry in that time (one in 2012 and two in 2013) were not tested for poisons as they were too decomposed for sampling.
More soon.
With thanks to Allan Mee and Kevin Tarrant.
