Nature in the News

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"2018 Breeding Season Outline
Golden Eagle Trust

Golden Eagle
The Golden Eagles had another good year in 2018 and three young fledged in the wild. One coastal pair reared two young and the pair in the Bluestack Mountains reared a single chick again. No pairs laid eggs in the Derryveagh Mountains in 2018. This follows on from 3 young fledged in 2017 also. 18 young have fledged in County Donegal since the first successful breeding in 2007.

5 territories were occupied including, South Derryveagh, North Derryveagh/Glenveagh National Park (where the 17-year old female disappeared in 2017, presumably from natural mortality or old age), Inishowen Peninsula, Bluestack Mountains and the Glencolumbkille Peninsula/Slieve Toohey.

3 Scottish Golden Eagles were translocated and released in Southern Scotland in 2018. This release programme aims to release 6-10 birds in Southern Scotland over the coming years and we should expect the occasional released bird to disperse across to Northern Ireland and Donegal.

White-tailed Sea Eagle
Unfortunately, at the start of the breeding season; our two most productive breeding pairs (on Lough Derg, Mountshannon and Portumna) suffered the loss of their respective females during February and March. The Mountshannon female was confirmed to have died from Avian Influenza and the missing Portumna female is presumed to have died from Avian flu also.

However, of the 12 territorial pairs at the start of the breeding season; 10 pairs laid eggs. 6 pairs hatched young and 4 of these pairs fledged one chick each (4 chicks fledged in total). Of the 4 pairs that failed at egg stage, two breeding sites involved “Trios”, which seems to have been part of the reason why the clutches failed.
Of the 12 pairs at the start of the season, 7 were in County Kerry, two were in County Cork (Garnish Island and Glengarriff), two in Galway and one in Clare. 3 of the single chicks fledged in Kerry and a single chick fledged in Connemara (SW od Oughterard). 23 White-tailed Eagles have fledged in the wild in Ireland, since 2013.

A nest camera was fitted near to the nest on Garnish Island, in the pre-breeding season, by NPWS and OPW, but unfortunately this breeding attempt involved three adults and failed.

Red Kite
The Wicklow kite population continues to expand year on year. It is easy to forget that the early part of the 2018 breeding season was quite cold and wet and a number of established kite pairs failed early. However, it is clear that there were over 80 pairs of territorial kites in Wicklow this year, which were monitored by a combination of voluntary and some paid fieldwork.

At least 63 young Red Kites fledged in County Wicklow this year and we expect many others fledged elsewhere in the county also. In Dublin, there were 5 territorial pairs in a pocket of rich farmland near Ashbourne. 4 Dublin chicks were ringed and a 5th newly fledged juvenile kite was seen near Ashbourne Golf course (from an unlocated nest).

So, in total, we believe that there were over 85 pairs of kites in Wicklow and Dublin in 2018 and there was an absolute minimum of 68 young kites fledged on the east coast in 2018.

IRISH BREEDING TOTALS 2018

Golden Eagle
5 Territorial Pairs 3 young fledged

White-tailed Sea Eagle
12 Territorial Pairs 4 young fledged

Red Kite
85+ Territorial Pairs 68+ young fledged"

Not a bad year especially considering the deaths of the WTE due to avian flu.

Good photo alright. Would be interesting to find out whether the lamb was alive or dead when it was taken, but I guess we'll never know.