The flying barn door

Once accused of snatching children, but more likely to take a tennis ball, ‘the eagle with the sunlit eye’ is back soaring through our skies thanks to a careful reintroduction programme, discovers Vicky Liddell

- Vicky Liddell

OVER the past two years, members of the public in the south of England have reported seeing an enormous bird of prey overhead.

Sometimes described as ‘a flying barn door’ on account of its vast rectangular wings, the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) is once again taking to the skies after being demonised as a lamb killer from the Middle Ages onwards. Its return to England is the result of a reintroduction programme based on the Isle of Wight that hopes to release a total of 60 birds over a period of five years; there are now thought to be 25 white-tailed individuals surviving in the wild. The birds have been seen coasting over the country from Essex to Yorkshire—one young bird from the original 2019 group surprised Londoners when it was spotted flying over Big Ben only days after release.

The Isle of Wight White-tailed Eagle Project is a joint venture between Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation that has already helped the species re-establish in Scotland. The Isle of Wight was chosen for its plentiful supply of fish and rabbits, as well as quiet nesting sites—it is also, fittingly, the last place where an English pair of sea eagles bred, on Culver Cliff in 1780.

The eaglets are collected under licence from nests in west Scotland, where the population now stands at more than 140 breeding pairs, and flown by aeroplane to the Isle of Wight. There, Forestry England project officer Steve Egerton-Read takes over, providing a selection of food through a hatch. Once they have been checked over by a vet, the young eagles are fitted with satellite trackers and released at about 14–18 weeks old: in August 2021, a total of 12 birds were released successfully.