First Sea Eagles born in over a century

snowstreams · 08-05-2013 11:24am #1

This is great news. 3 Chicks have hatched successfully according to the link below.

2 were hatched in the nest in Mountshannon in clare.
Hopefully the chicks will be seen flying the nest later this year!

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/whitetailed-eagles-born-in-wild-for-first-time-in-over-a-century-29251566.html

OpenYourEyes · 08-05-2013 11:31am

12 nesting sites around the country too, which is good to hear. Although I think some of them are possibly territories only occupied by one bird, but still it's progress!

snowstreams · 08-05-2013 11:33am

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

12 nesting sites around the country too, which is good to hear. Although I think some of them are possibly territories only occupied by one bird, but still it's progress!

Oh great, where did you read that there is twelve sites?

OpenYourEyes · 08-05-2013 11:36am

RTE piece
reading it again it actually says there's 12 pairs - but I've heard that there were a few territories occupied by single birds - not sure if this is slightly out of date info, or if those few territories are in addition to the 12.

All great to hear and see anyway!

Mickeroo · 08-05-2013 11:50am

Brilliant news

OpenYourEyes · 08-05-2013 12:16pm

All of "The Eagles Return" documentaries are currently available on RTE player by the way, worth a watch as a reminder of how and why the re-introduction projects started, and how majestic the eagles and kites look as part of our landscape!

fryup · 09-05-2013 10:12am

i can't uderstand the need to annouce it?? if they want it to succeed they should have kept it quiet.........your going to have all sorts going down there now trying to have a closer look at the chicks as well as the vindictive types who'll want this project to fail

OpenYourEyes · 09-05-2013 10:18am

fryup wrote: »

i can't uderstand the need to annouce it?? if they want it to succeed they should have kept it quiet.........your going to have all sorts going down there now trying to have a closer look at the chicks as well as the vindictive types who'll want this project to fail

The nest at Mountshannon was already well known, and this is likely to increase visitor numbers to the area - which will increase the goodwill of the locals, it'll show other places that the eagles are worth keeping because they can be a source of revenue, and it will now be one of the most watched nests in the country - which will make it much more difficult for anyone to tamper with it. Good publicity like this will help the success of the project - being secretive about it will allow rumours and bulls**t stories to circulate and create mistrust, which would all be bad.

Its also high up in a tree on an island, so it'd be very hard for anyone to tamper with it anyway!

And most people look at the nest through scopes from the far shore - so theres no disturbance there, and the locals have encouraged a 250m exclusion zone around the island the eagles are on to minimise disturbance.

robp · 09-05-2013 1:13pm

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

The nest at Mountshannon was already well known, and this is likely to increase visitor numbers to the area - which will increase the goodwill of the locals, it'll show other places that the eagles are worth keeping because they can be a source of revenue, and it will now be one of the most watched nests in the country - which will make it much more difficult for anyone to tamper with it. Good publicity like this will help the success of the project - being secretive about it will allow rumours and bulls**t stories to circulate and create mistrust, which would all be bad.

Its also high up in a tree on an island, so it'd be very hard for anyone to tamper with it anyway!

And most people look at the nest through scopes from the far shore - so theres no disturbance there, and the locals have encouraged a 250m exclusion zone around the island the eagles are on to minimise disturbance.

That is what I thought. I presume the Kilarney nest is in a secret non publicised location in the park's 25,000 acres?

OpenYourEyes · 09-05-2013 2:12pm

robp wrote: »

That is what I thought. I presume the Kilarney nest is in a secret non publicised location in the park's 25,000 acres?

I actually saw reference to where it is today, but that being said I'm sure it'll also be well monitored, and is still probably fairly hard to get access to too

robp · 09-05-2013 8:43pm

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

I actually saw reference to where it is today, but that being said I'm sure it'll also be well monitored, and is still probably fairly hard to get access to too

That is a bit surprising. Maybe we can do the whole top secret thing once(if) the ospreys settle down here.

V_Moth · 09-05-2013 9:44pm

I think part of keeping the thing quiet until now was to deter the eggers who would target something like this. For example, some of the Osprey nests in Scotland require/get 24hr surveillance to stop eggers, but even this is not always enough.

Whether the breeding location of a species should be kept quiet depends on a variety of factors, such as its rarity (nationally/internationally), accessibility, susceptibility to disturbance etc. Ideally (as mentioned above), the best option is to publicise the nesting to encourage people to visit the area, but it is not always possible.

Marcome21 · 10-05-2013 2:55pm

But are there egg-collectors in Ireland? I've never heard of any. I don't think in all honesty there is much of a threat to them.

The more people that see them the better for their future welfare, there is no need for any secrecy, that would be over the top in fairness. This is Ireland not the UK.

snowstreams · 10-05-2013 3:01pm

Ive wondered the same thing too. Why would someone want to collect eggs anyway? Other than maybe wanting to breed their own eagle in captivity illegally?
But the UK isnt too far away and if egg collectors exist there, they could come here to collect eggs easily enough. Id say the mountshannon nest is nice and safe on the island but nests in future in other areas of Ireland could be at risk.

Zillah · 10-05-2013 3:01pm

What were the circumstances of the birds that were poisoned?

OpenYourEyes · 10-05-2013 3:33pm

There are egg collectors in Ireland to the best of my knowledge, although I would imagine theres proportionally less than in the UK. They collect them to add to their collection - to show off that they got this rare birds egg etc.I remember a case from the UK where the guy had eggs from birds of prey amongst a huge number of other species and he was bragging about how he managed to get it despite it being a nest that was kept an eye on by the authorities etc. And yeah there could always be that risk of egg collectors from elsewhere coming here.

To the best of my knowledge the authorities usually assume that egg collectors are one of the possible threats that raptors and rare birds are vulnerable to. But at the end of the day you can't keep the location of every nest a secret, and like I said above there are multiple benefits to disclosing the locations of the Mountshannon nest and others. ultimately its a cost/benefit thing - the costs of disclosing the next site versus the benefits.

OpenYourEyes · 10-05-2013 3:35pm

Zillah wrote: »

What were the circumstances of the birds that were poisoned?

The birds were poisoned by meat bait/animal carcasses etc that were left out on farm land and laced with large doses of highly toxic substances. Some would argue that these were left out to poison foxes and crows, and I'm sure thats true for some but not all of the cases. The law has since been changed so that its now illegal to leave out poisons like this, but there have still been poisoning incidents since the change in legislation.

Marcome21 · 10-05-2013 6:31pm

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

There are egg collectors in Ireland to the best of my knowledge, although I would imagine theres proportionally less than in the UK.

Are there any cases of people in Ireland doing this? I thought it was really an English thing, this egg collecting. I think the eagles are pretty safe in this country(apart from the poison of course).

OpenYourEyes · 10-05-2013 6:46pm

Marcome21 wrote: »

Are there any cases of people in Ireland doing this? I thought it was really an English thing, this egg collecting. I think the eagles are pretty safe in this country(apart from the poison of course).

Tbh it's not something I've ever looked into, I think it is more of an English thing alright, but that there are probably a handful of people in Ireland that do it. I can't back that up with anything, its just the opinion I've gotten from talking to various bird/conservation people over the years. Similarly, I never thought anyone in Ireland did 'finching' - luring and taking finches and other songbirds from the wild - I assumed it was something done on the continent and maybe a bit in England, but theres actually a good few people in Ireland who do it unfortunately!

But yeah, I think egg collecting is a long way down the list of potential problems for the Sea Eagles, with poisoning being top of the list by a long way!

cameramonkey · 21-05-2013 10:47am

http://mountshannonwhitetailedseaeagles.com/

You can keep up with progress here.

trebor28 · 08-06-2013 11:04pm

Went up to Mountshannon this morning to catch a glimpse of the eagles and or chicks.

Didnt see any bird for over 3 hours.

the nest is being obscured by the blooming trees around it.

the warm weather seems to be causing the adults to sit in the shade and not show.

there must be lots of food for them as apparently they only spend about ten minutes hunting and then come back with a whopper of a pike a metre long!

They also said they are putting up a camera over the nest, and streaming a feed on a website so watch this space.

Capercaille · 16-06-2013 5:06pm

From the Mountshannon white tailed sea eagle facebook page:

The Rescue boat was called out twice today!! A photographer sat for 30minutes or more under the males favourite perch, hindering him from going fishing! Well done that man"NOT" there is an exclusion zone please abide by it! The male fishes there every day to feed his family and if you're sat there hindering him you could be harming the chicks!!
.
Second time: 3 people in a boat landed on the island, they all got out of the boat after a few minutes 2 got back into the boat and left the one fishing for the night!! What planet are you on?? These are the first WTSE chicks in Ireland for over 100 years!! Give them a chance!!

:mad::mad::mad:

Desmo · 16-06-2013 8:16pm

Many bird photographers have a common sense attitude to bird photography and/or a knowledge of birds and do no harm. Some, however, really are dense OR ignorant OR simply do not care what they do to get a shot. There are problems on some coastal islands with people trying to get too close to Puffins and gannets. These w***ers who land on the island at Mountshannon really are scumbags.

Birdnuts · 16-06-2013 9:53pm

Desmo wrote: »

Many bird photographers have a common sense attitude to bird photography and/or a knowledge of birds and do no harm. Some, however, really are dense OR ignorant OR simply do not care what they do to get a shot. There are problems on some coastal islands with people trying to get too close to Puffins and gannets. These w***ers who land on the island at Mountshannon really are scumbags.

There was a case last year in the UK were this tool landed on a major seabird colony off the East of England and proceeded to kill 2 nesting terns that he claimed were "mobbing" him. Thankfully he was banned from all RSPB reserves for life

OpenYourEyes · 16-06-2013 10:06pm

Plenty of people walking into marsh habitats disturbing plenty of birds, many of which could be breeding, to chase down birds for pictures - plenty of people freely using mobiles/mp3 players with birdcalls too to try and get pics, despite it being illegal and potentially very damaging for the birds in question!

Thankfully the Mountshannon WTSE nest is being watched over so carefully!

flutered · 16-06-2013 10:07pm

Marcome21 wrote: »

But are there egg-collectors in Ireland? I've never heard of any. I don't think in all honesty there is much of a threat to them.

if there is money to be made from collecting them then they are people who want to sell them.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 16-06-2013 10:13pm

There are certainly egg collectors. Perhaps not on the scale found in Britain several times - where individuals had dozens of eggs of each of many species and perhaps not for money. But, I can assure you there are people in Ireland who collect eggs and are fanatical about getting a new egg for their collection. Some have "old" collections from decades back and they can actually be a great educational aid to see them but others are actively collecting eggs.

Birdnuts · 16-06-2013 10:27pm

Elsa Teeny Sailboat wrote: »

There are certainly egg collectors. Perhaps not on the scale found in Britain several times - where individuals had dozens of eggs of each of many species and perhaps not for money. But, I can assure you there are people in Ireland who collect eggs and are fanatical about getting a new egg for their collection. Some have "old" collections from decades back and they can actually be a great educational aid to see them but others are actively collecting eggs.

There certainly are more than a few hard cases in the UK - one chap was banned from setting foot in Scotland after being convicted of stealing Osprey eggs on more than one occasion.

First Sea Eagles born in over a century

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