Westcountry sea eagles fly into controversy after pair found dead
Date of alert:
Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Crime Ref:
Force:
Devon & Cornwall Police
With a wingspan of up to 8ft, and flying at speeds up to 40mph, white-tailed eagles make an impressive sight as they return to the skies above the Westcountry coast after an absence of more than 200 years.
The young birds have ranged hundreds of miles from where they were reintroduced on the Isle of Wight, making trips through Devon into Cornwall and north to Lundy in the Bristol Channel.
One flew from West Dorset to Salcombe in South Devon in just six hours, reaching a speed of 61 km per hour (38mph).
The raptors, also known as sea eagles, once populated the whole of the south coast of England, from Kent to Cornwall.
They disappeared from the region after the last recorded pair was seen on the Isle of Wight in 1780, and were eventually wiped out in the UK early last century.
Conservationists are celebrating the reintroduction as a small but significant example of rewilding, following the successful growth of the population to around 130 pairs in Scotland.
The project, a partnership between Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, released the first six birds on the island in 2019, and has a licence for up to 60 over a five-year period.
