July 30, 2025 • 20 mins
The UK’s largest bird of prey is making a comeback. It’s now possible to spot white-tailed eagles, or sea eagles, as they’re also known, in many parts of the country thanks to an ongoing re-introduction programme. Join Ranger Rosie Holdsworth as she sets out with Forestry England’s Steve Egerton-Read, a pair of binoculars, and a lot of hope, as they try and spot them on the Isle of Wight.
[Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure.
Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.
Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor.
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Production
Presenter: Rosie Holdsworth
Producer: Claire Hickinbotham
Sound: Nikki Ruck and Jesus Gomez
Contributor Steve Egerton-Read, Forestry England.
Forestry England are working with the Roy Dennis Foundation to bring the White-tailed eagle back to the English Landscape.
If you’d like to read more about some of the points raised in this episode, have a look at this. White-tailed Eagle Project - Frequently Asked Questions - Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation
Visit Rosie visited Bembridge and Culver Downs | Isle of Wight | National Trust and Newtown National Nature Reserve | IOW | National Trust
If you fancy visiting, why not have a look at Isle of Wight Holidays | Places to stay | National Trust
And why not check out Wild Tales on Instagram Wild Tales | Nature Podcast (@wildtalesnt) • Instagram photos and videos
[Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure.
Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.
Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor.
www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/
Production
Presenter: Rosie Holdsworth
Producer: Claire Hickinbotham
Sound: Nikki Ruck and Jesus Gomez
Contributor Steve Egerton-Read, Forestry England.
Forestry England are working with the Roy Dennis Foundation to bring the White-tailed eagle back to the English Landscape.
If you’d like to read more about some of the points raised in this episode, have a look at this. White-tailed Eagle Project - Frequently Asked Questions - Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation
Visit Rosie visited Bembridge and Culver Downs | Isle of Wight | National Trust and Newtown National Nature Reserve | IOW | National Trust
If you fancy visiting, why not have a look at Isle of Wight Holidays | Places to stay | National Trust
And why not check out Wild Tales on Instagram Wild Tales | Nature Podcast (@wildtalesnt) • Instagram photos and videos
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (00:34):
You can get connected with individuals quite
easily because they're veryapparent in the landscape. When
you watch other birds, you don'tnecessarily know that's the same
individual that you sawyesterday. Whereas with eagles,
you know which individual it is.And for me personally, I've
known all these birds throughouttheir lives. So every time I see
them, it is quite special.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (00:54):
One of the most majestic birds ever to
grace our skies is making acomeback. The white-tailed
eagle, or sea eagle, as they'realso known. Became extinct in
the UK in the early 20thcentury. Where I'm visiting in
the south of England today, theIsle of Wight, lost them even
earlier than that. But it's nowpossible you might spot them.
(01:16):
I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth.Welcome to the wild tale of the
Return Of The Eagle.
I've just popped up to CulverDown, which is the last place...
On the Isle of Wight thatwhite-tailed sea eagles were
(01:36):
recorded nesting way back in1780. We're right on the top of
the cliff and I can see why theywere here. It is an amazing
place to be an eagle. It's gotfantastic 360 views over the
sea, lots of fishingopportunities, some very steep
cliffs with I'm sure lots ofcraggy nesting opportunities.
(02:00):
While there are no eaglesnesting here today, it is now
possible to spot the bird on theisland and beyond.
So tomorrow I'm really lookingforward to because we're going
to meet someone who's part of ateam which is working on a
white-tailed eaglereintroduction project on the
Isle of Wight and I'm hopefulthat we might even see some
(02:23):
eagles ourselves so it could bea very, very exciting day
tomorrow. I'm really lookingforward to it.
And so, after a night's sleepand a short drive to the other
side of the island, I'm ready togo.
(02:44):
Good morning, you must be Steve.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (02:45):
Hi Rosie, really nice to meet you. How are
you?
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (02:47):
Lovely, yeah, I'm very well, thank you. Steve,
or Steve the Eagle Man, as he'sknown in these parts, is Steve
Egerton-Reed, the White-tailedEagle Project Officer for
Forestry England.
So Steve, where have you broughtme and where are we going to go?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:04):
I've brought you to the wonderful Newtown
National Nature Reserve andNewtown itself is a really
interesting place. It used to beone of the biggest towns, most
important towns here on the Isleof Wight but now it's one of the
most important nature reserveson the Isle of Wight.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (03:17):
We're wandering through an amazing
meadow and down towards the saltmarsh and I can see the salt
marsh out in front of me withsome boats sitting in the mud,
in the salt marsh and aboardwalk out across the marsh
so I'm assuming is that wherewe're heading
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:32):
We're heading out into the marsh, we
can see the wonderful Isle ofWight coast and we can even see
the New Forest in the distancecan't we
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (03:39):
There we go what a view.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:40):
Have you seen an eagle before?
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (03:41):
I have.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:42):
Fantastic, so I mean there's a lot of
things that are really strikingabout them. So, this is a bird
that's got an enormous wingspanat two and a half meters,
beautiful, bright white tail butit's also got this big, heavy
yellow bill and this kind ofblondie, grey look.
But here we are in the Isle ofWight. This is the last place
(04:03):
that the birds bred here inSouthern England, all the way
back in 1780. I think you'vebeen to Culver Cliff where the
last pair supposedly bred.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (04:11):
Yeah, I was up there, yeah.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (04:14):
And really, the story for what it told
eagles is quite sad, right wayup to the early 20th century,
when the bird became extinct asa whole in the UK.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (04:25):
White-tailed eagles were once widespread
across the country. It's thoughtthere were as many as 1,000 to
1,400 pairs in 500 AD. Butthrough the Middle Ages, they
suffered persecution and numbersdeclined drastically. By the
late 18th century, there wereonly a few breeding pairs
remaining in the UK. Theydisappeared from the Isle of
(04:47):
Wight, from Culver Cliff, in1780. And then the last known
breeding pair in England wasthought to have been on the
Isle Of Man in 1815. They hungon in Scotland for another
hundred years. And it was inScotland that a white-tailed
eagle reintroduction programmewas launched in 1975. There are
now 150 to 180 pairs of eaglesthere. But the bird is still
(05:12):
listed as a bird of conservationconcern, making it one of the
UK's rarest species.
So as we walk out onto the saltmarsh, where is the best place
for us to start to scan and lookfor eagles?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (05:26):
This is a bird that spends about 90% of
the day perched up. You don'tnecessarily have to sit in a
tree. It can sit on a post. Itcan sit on the ground even.
Imagine yourself as an eagle fora minute, Rosie. Where would you
sit if you wanted a really goodview? And then, you know, it's
always a good idea to have alittle look in the sky. You
know, you could get lucky andone just fly over. I'm just
(05:49):
going to make a quick scan foryou.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (05:53):
Oh, there is something pretty big in the top
of the...
STEVE EGERTON-READ (05:59):
Oh yeah, so it looks as though there's a
buzzard at the top of that bushthere. There's a phrase that
everyone always says, if youthink you've seen an eagle and
you're not sure, you probablyhaven't. I don't see anything
just yet, but we shouldn't giveup hope too early.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (06:18):
Should we head out over the boardwalk and onto
the salt marsh?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (06:20):
Yeah, let's do that Rosie, let's try and
give you as best a chance ofseeing an eagle as we can.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (06:28):
So an eagle reintroduction project sounds
really exciting, but I know fromexperience how these things can
be quite laborious and quiteinvolved. What are the mechanics
of trying to reintroduce aspecies like that?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (06:41):
So white-tailed eagles, they hatch
usually sometime in April orMay. We collect these young
birds, birds that are aroundseven weeks old, from wild nests
in Scotland.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (06:55):
All the birds come from twins or triplets.
It's part of the licencecondition with NatureScot that
at least one must be leftbehind. That allows Forestry
England, working alongside theRoy Dennis Foundation, to take
the birds from wild nests.Taking them at seven weeks old
is crucial.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (07:14):
We want them to be as independent as possible
of their parents, so they don'trequire any hand rearing or any
intensive care. They're prettymuch fully grown, they just
haven't quite developed thepower of flight.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (07:29):
In fact, their very first flight is a bit of a
VIP trip down to the Isle ofWight.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (07:37):
It's in a little Cessna coming down from
Inverness to Bembridge Airfield.
Yeah, a little private plane,yeah.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (07:47):
Then, over the next six weeks, the birds are
fed mainly on fish, conger eel,rabbit and canada goose in
preparation for being released.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (07:57):
They get a really a real smorgasbord if you
like for those six weeks thatare with us and they grow really
fast. We get checked by a vetjust prior to release and then
we fit GPS devices.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (08:08):
The project aims to establish 60 breeding
pairs that will spread outacross the south coast of
England and Steve is 37 pairsin.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (08:21):
So these birds take a long time to reach
breeding maturity they're sortof talking four or five years.
And in that sort of interimperiod, they kind of go all over
the place. So these GPS devices,imagine your mobile phone,
they're a little bit smallerthan that.
They weigh about 50 grams andthey fit on the bird like a
rucksack. So there's a harness,so we stitch the harness
(08:41):
together. We don't stitch itonto the bird, but the harness
stitches together. And at somepoint, the harness will fall
apart and the device will falloff the bird. But these devices
are so incredible. They're thesereally natty things. They've got
little mobile phone SIM card inthem. And it gives you real,
real power in understanding whatthe birds are doing in the
landscape.
(09:02):
So to give you an essence ofthat, like if I wanted to I
could send a message to a birdnow and say, or device rather
than bird,
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (09:08):
It is a bird.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (09:09):
It's not going write back though, and say
you know I want the device tolog points every second, I want
it to transmit to me every 10minutes. And what that allows us
to do of course is understandwhere the key landscapes are and
we can go and stand in a fieldand we can monitor them for long
periods of time.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (09:26):
So if you can track them with the GPS
harnesses, have you tracked themleaving the Isle of Wight?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (09:33):
Pretty much all of them leave the Isle of
Wight at some point in theirlives. So young white-tailed
eagles, really from ages one,two, three, they're really
nomadic.
Perhaps the most remarkable setof journeys comes from a pair
now that are established inPoole Harbour. The male bird is
(09:53):
a bird called G463. So he madean exploration down to Cornwall,
Lands End, a sort of mini autumnholiday I guess. And then he
settled in South Somerset for therest of the winter.
But then come the spring, hewent on this epic exploration up
into East Anglia. And then laterthat spring, became the first of
(10:17):
the birds that we released tocross the English Channel. Made
this epic journey throughFrance, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and into Denmark.You think, is he going to come
back? And he did.
The following year, he went backto all the same places he'd
(10:38):
visited the year before. He'dcreated a memory map of where he
was. You know, remember the keypoints of the landscape, you
know, down to the same trees, hewas roosting in the same trees,
but he did come back.
(11:03):
This behaviour is reallyimportant and that's why part of
the reason the translocationworks is this natal philopatry,
we call it. So the birds want tocome back to where they regard
home to be. And for them, the Solentshore and the surrounding
wetlands, Poole Harbour,Chichester Harbour, and even the
freshwater wetlands inland,that's home.
But regardless of where they go,they all try to come back to
(11:27):
sort of within 50, 60 kilometresof us here on the Isle of Wight.
And really that's what we wantthem to do of course because we
want to try and establish abreeding population here on the
south coast of England and wehope sort of within 10 years of
starting the project we'llestablish somewhere between six
to ten pairs of eagles within 50to 60 kilometers of the Isle of
(11:49):
Wight from that initialtranslocated population and at
that point the population willbe self-sustaining.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (11:56):
Brilliant. Do they have territories? So at
some point will there be so manyeagles on the Isle of Wight and
surrounds that they need to pushout into other areas. Is that
kind of part of the idea?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (12:08):
That's a good question. I mean, like,
yeah, white-tailed eagles arereally territorial. So, you
know, this is the apex avianpredator. So it's right at the
top of the avian food chain. Andit has really massive territory.
So you're looking at 10 to 30square kilometres.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (12:25):
Wow. So, Steve, shall we wander a little
bit further out onto the saltmarsh.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (12:29):
Well, yeah, sure. We'll see what we can see.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (12:36):
One of Steve's jobs as project officer is to
work with the farming communityon the Isle of Wight and respond
to any local issues or concerns.While in Scotland, evidence
indicates some white-tailedeagles scavenge dead lambs and
very occasionally take small orweak black-faced sheep.
This has been found to be due tothe open-range nature of
(12:56):
agriculture, bad weather, andlack of alternative wild prey.
But the team take concerns fromfarmers and livestock managers
seriously and have worked withresearchers in the Netherlands
and Ireland where there havebeen successful reintroduction
programmes and no cases ofeagles taking lambs or any other
livestock.
(13:17):
So as we go, I have to ask, youmentioned that eagles are
obviously a top apex predator.With a reintroduction like this,
was there ever any worry thatthey might eat some of the
things that maybe people don'twant them to eat, like domestic
livestock, that kind of thing.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (13:33):
Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of
concerns at the outset of theproject from livestock farmers,
there was concerns fromconservation managers, you know,
there were concerns about thetypes of birds they might eat,
or some of the other things thatthey might impact on a landscape
scale.
And of course, you know, there'salso potentially worries from
game or fisheries. But to date,we've had no conflict at all.
(13:55):
And that doesn't mean to saythat we are sitting back and
resting on our laurels. We meeta couple of times a year and we
chat about how the birds aredoing and about the project more
broadly. And it's an opportunityfor anybody to raise any worries
that they might have. Andalongside that, we do a whole
host of really proactiveengagements with landowners,
with land users and conservationgroups too. So we feel things
(14:19):
are going really positively. Andbroadly speaking, most people
are really, really positive andexcited about the project.
So I suppose we'd better stophere and have another little
scan, eh? Yeah.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (14:35):
The tide's pretty much fully out and it's a
great place out on the saltmarsh here, we're kind of
surrounded by the wetland. Soit's a great place to be
scanning and looking for eagles.So Steve, you can't do a job
like yours without being reallypassionate about it. What is it
about eagles that kind of getsyou up in the morning and keeps
(14:57):
you motivated?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (14:58):
The more you watch them, the more interesting
you find them as well. And, youcan get connected with
individuals quite easily becausethey, they're very apparent in
the landscape. When you watchother birds, I enjoy watching
all birds. I think they'refantastic, but you don't
necessarily know that's the sameindividual that you saw
yesterday. Whereas with eagles,you know, which individual it
is. And for me personally, youknow, I've, I've, I've known all
(15:21):
these birds throughout theirlives and that's, so every,
every time I see them, is quitespecial.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (15:28):
But it's not just Steve who enjoys the eagles
being back on the island.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (15:33):
There's lots of people that perhaps didn't
necessarily have an intimateconnection with nature before
who are now thinking, actually,it's really cool and
white-tailed eagles are reallyamazing. And white-tailed eagles
did once have a really deepcultural value to us. In the
Iron Age and the Roman period,these birds were really highly
revered and had high spiritualvalue.
(15:55):
The return of this bird is kindof put the white-tailed eagle
back in that cultural spotlightand we have works of art that
are going around. So I thinkthere was one christmas where
somebody made this beautifulchristmas card with white-tailed
eagle and a santa sleigh in thebackground over The Needles. It
was fantastic. Seriously put inthe spotlight by this fantastic
(16:16):
mural that you can go and see onthe Columbine building in East
Cowes and it's like 12 metershigh and about 60 meters long I
think. And the centrepiece ofthis artwork is this huge
white-tailed eagle in this artdeco style, it's absolutely
beautiful.
It's really becoming part ofIsle of Wight's cultural
identity and you know we'rereally proud here on Isle of
Wight I feel and that we have aplace that it started again
(16:39):
where this resurgence of thisbird in southern England this is
where it happened and we're partof that story.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (16:50):
Just having one last scan out across this
incredible salt marsh. There area few distracting looking
cormorants sitting on the topsof posts, but no eagles. Should
we start wandering back inland?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:06):
I suppose we should.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (17:08):
So the whole aim of the project is to
re-establish a breedingpopulation in the south of
England. The million dollarquestion, have the eagles bred?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:20):
Yes. So in 2023, we're really lucky in
that he
first pair of eagles bred on thesouth coast of England in 240
odd years
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (17:30):
Amazing!
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:30):
So it was actually it was really it was a
really surprising sort of eventbecause the pair were really
young. So it was a pair of birdsthat were released in 2020 and
you'll remember of course I saidto you earlier these birds don't
breed till they're about four orfive normally. So these birds
were three and they bred atthree years old and they raised
a single chick, a male calledG625 and then last year 2024,
(17:53):
they've bred again. And they hadtwo, they're twins.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (17:55):
Oh, amazing!
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:55):
So a really fantastic moment. You want that
early success. And then when youget it, it's just, it's very,
very satisfying.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (18:03):
Yeah. And on a kind of, on a personal level,
did you feel emotional when theyfledged chicks?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (18:09):
I mean, it was one of those weird things.
You can't, it just feels sosurreal. You don't, don't really
believe it's happening in truth.It's strange because 2023, that
period, you know, the birdsincubate for about 38 days and
then the chicks from a nest foranother 11 weeks. It felt like
an age, every moment you thoughtoh my god like yeah not it's not
(18:31):
happening oh this could gowrong. You worry about things
and time seems to go reallyslowly and then last year you
sort of blink and you miss it.They've done it been there
before it's okay like but ofcourse there's a long way to go,
before we can say your bird'ssecure in Southern England. So
time will tell.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (18:51):
Fingers crossed.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of Wild Tales. If you
liked it, why not give us a likeor a follow? We'll be back soon
with another episode in a coupleof weeks. But if you can't wait
that long, why not check out ourother nature podcast, Nature
(19:12):
Fix. Or if you like your historytoo, there's Back When. I'll see
you next time.
You can get connected with individuals quite
easily because they're veryapparent in the landscape. When
you watch other birds, you don'tnecessarily know that's the same
individual that you sawyesterday. Whereas with eagles,
you know which individual it is.And for me personally, I've
known all these birds throughouttheir lives. So every time I see
them, it is quite special.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (00:54):
One of the most majestic birds ever to
grace our skies is making acomeback. The white-tailed
eagle, or sea eagle, as they'realso known. Became extinct in
the UK in the early 20thcentury. Where I'm visiting in
the south of England today, theIsle of Wight, lost them even
earlier than that. But it's nowpossible you might spot them.
(01:16):
I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth.Welcome to the wild tale of the
Return Of The Eagle.
I've just popped up to CulverDown, which is the last place...
On the Isle of Wight thatwhite-tailed sea eagles were
(01:36):
recorded nesting way back in1780. We're right on the top of
the cliff and I can see why theywere here. It is an amazing
place to be an eagle. It's gotfantastic 360 views over the
sea, lots of fishingopportunities, some very steep
cliffs with I'm sure lots ofcraggy nesting opportunities.
(02:00):
While there are no eaglesnesting here today, it is now
possible to spot the bird on theisland and beyond.
So tomorrow I'm really lookingforward to because we're going
to meet someone who's part of ateam which is working on a
white-tailed eaglereintroduction project on the
Isle of Wight and I'm hopefulthat we might even see some
(02:23):
eagles ourselves so it could bea very, very exciting day
tomorrow. I'm really lookingforward to it.
And so, after a night's sleepand a short drive to the other
side of the island, I'm ready togo.
(02:44):
Good morning, you must be Steve.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (02:45):
Hi Rosie, really nice to meet you. How are
you?
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (02:47):
Lovely, yeah, I'm very well, thank you. Steve,
or Steve the Eagle Man, as he'sknown in these parts, is Steve
Egerton-Reed, the White-tailedEagle Project Officer for
Forestry England.
So Steve, where have you broughtme and where are we going to go?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:04):
I've brought you to the wonderful Newtown
National Nature Reserve andNewtown itself is a really
interesting place. It used to beone of the biggest towns, most
important towns here on the Isleof Wight but now it's one of the
most important nature reserveson the Isle of Wight.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (03:17):
We're wandering through an amazing
meadow and down towards the saltmarsh and I can see the salt
marsh out in front of me withsome boats sitting in the mud,
in the salt marsh and aboardwalk out across the marsh
so I'm assuming is that wherewe're heading
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:32):
We're heading out into the marsh, we
can see the wonderful Isle ofWight coast and we can even see
the New Forest in the distancecan't we
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (03:39):
There we go what a view.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:40):
Have you seen an eagle before?
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (03:41):
I have.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (03:42):
Fantastic, so I mean there's a lot of
things that are really strikingabout them. So, this is a bird
that's got an enormous wingspanat two and a half meters,
beautiful, bright white tail butit's also got this big, heavy
yellow bill and this kind ofblondie, grey look.
But here we are in the Isle ofWight. This is the last place
(04:03):
that the birds bred here inSouthern England, all the way
back in 1780. I think you'vebeen to Culver Cliff where the
last pair supposedly bred.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (04:11):
Yeah, I was up there, yeah.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (04:14):
And really, the story for what it told
eagles is quite sad, right wayup to the early 20th century,
when the bird became extinct asa whole in the UK.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (04:25):
White-tailed eagles were once widespread
across the country. It's thoughtthere were as many as 1,000 to
1,400 pairs in 500 AD. Butthrough the Middle Ages, they
suffered persecution and numbersdeclined drastically. By the
late 18th century, there wereonly a few breeding pairs
remaining in the UK. Theydisappeared from the Isle of
(04:47):
Wight, from Culver Cliff, in1780. And then the last known
breeding pair in England wasthought to have been on the
Isle Of Man in 1815. They hungon in Scotland for another
hundred years. And it was inScotland that a white-tailed
eagle reintroduction programmewas launched in 1975. There are
now 150 to 180 pairs of eaglesthere. But the bird is still
(05:12):
listed as a bird of conservationconcern, making it one of the
UK's rarest species.
So as we walk out onto the saltmarsh, where is the best place
for us to start to scan and lookfor eagles?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (05:26):
This is a bird that spends about 90% of
the day perched up. You don'tnecessarily have to sit in a
tree. It can sit on a post. Itcan sit on the ground even.
Imagine yourself as an eagle fora minute, Rosie. Where would you
sit if you wanted a really goodview? And then, you know, it's
always a good idea to have alittle look in the sky. You
know, you could get lucky andone just fly over. I'm just
(05:49):
going to make a quick scan foryou.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (05:53):
Oh, there is something pretty big in the top
of the...
STEVE EGERTON-READ (05:59):
Oh yeah, so it looks as though there's a
buzzard at the top of that bushthere. There's a phrase that
everyone always says, if youthink you've seen an eagle and
you're not sure, you probablyhaven't. I don't see anything
just yet, but we shouldn't giveup hope too early.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (06:18):
Should we head out over the boardwalk and onto
the salt marsh?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (06:20):
Yeah, let's do that Rosie, let's try and
give you as best a chance ofseeing an eagle as we can.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (06:28):
So an eagle reintroduction project sounds
really exciting, but I know fromexperience how these things can
be quite laborious and quiteinvolved. What are the mechanics
of trying to reintroduce aspecies like that?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (06:41):
So white-tailed eagles, they hatch
usually sometime in April orMay. We collect these young
birds, birds that are aroundseven weeks old, from wild nests
in Scotland.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (06:55):
All the birds come from twins or triplets.
It's part of the licencecondition with NatureScot that
at least one must be leftbehind. That allows Forestry
England, working alongside theRoy Dennis Foundation, to take
the birds from wild nests.Taking them at seven weeks old
is crucial.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (07:14):
We want them to be as independent as possible
of their parents, so they don'trequire any hand rearing or any
intensive care. They're prettymuch fully grown, they just
haven't quite developed thepower of flight.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (07:29):
In fact, their very first flight is a bit of a
VIP trip down to the Isle ofWight.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (07:37):
It's in a little Cessna coming down from
Inverness to Bembridge Airfield.
Yeah, a little private plane,yeah.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (07:47):
Then, over the next six weeks, the birds are
fed mainly on fish, conger eel,rabbit and canada goose in
preparation for being released.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (07:57):
They get a really a real smorgasbord if you
like for those six weeks thatare with us and they grow really
fast. We get checked by a vetjust prior to release and then
we fit GPS devices.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (08:08):
The project aims to establish 60 breeding
pairs that will spread outacross the south coast of
England and Steve is 37 pairsin.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (08:21):
So these birds take a long time to reach
breeding maturity they're sortof talking four or five years.
And in that sort of interimperiod, they kind of go all over
the place. So these GPS devices,imagine your mobile phone,
they're a little bit smallerthan that.
They weigh about 50 grams andthey fit on the bird like a
rucksack. So there's a harness,so we stitch the harness
(08:41):
together. We don't stitch itonto the bird, but the harness
stitches together. And at somepoint, the harness will fall
apart and the device will falloff the bird. But these devices
are so incredible. They're thesereally natty things. They've got
little mobile phone SIM card inthem. And it gives you real,
real power in understanding whatthe birds are doing in the
landscape.
(09:02):
So to give you an essence ofthat, like if I wanted to I
could send a message to a birdnow and say, or device rather
than bird,
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (09:08):
It is a bird.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (09:09):
It's not going write back though, and say
you know I want the device tolog points every second, I want
it to transmit to me every 10minutes. And what that allows us
to do of course is understandwhere the key landscapes are and
we can go and stand in a fieldand we can monitor them for long
periods of time.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (09:26):
So if you can track them with the GPS
harnesses, have you tracked themleaving the Isle of Wight?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (09:33):
Pretty much all of them leave the Isle of
Wight at some point in theirlives. So young white-tailed
eagles, really from ages one,two, three, they're really
nomadic.
Perhaps the most remarkable setof journeys comes from a pair
now that are established inPoole Harbour. The male bird is
(09:53):
a bird called G463. So he madean exploration down to Cornwall,
Lands End, a sort of mini autumnholiday I guess. And then he
settled in South Somerset for therest of the winter.
But then come the spring, hewent on this epic exploration up
into East Anglia. And then laterthat spring, became the first of
(10:17):
the birds that we released tocross the English Channel. Made
this epic journey throughFrance, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and into Denmark.You think, is he going to come
back? And he did.
The following year, he went backto all the same places he'd
(10:38):
visited the year before. He'dcreated a memory map of where he
was. You know, remember the keypoints of the landscape, you
know, down to the same trees, hewas roosting in the same trees,
but he did come back.
(11:03):
This behaviour is reallyimportant and that's why part of
the reason the translocationworks is this natal philopatry,
we call it. So the birds want tocome back to where they regard
home to be. And for them, the Solentshore and the surrounding
wetlands, Poole Harbour,Chichester Harbour, and even the
freshwater wetlands inland,that's home.
But regardless of where they go,they all try to come back to
(11:27):
sort of within 50, 60 kilometresof us here on the Isle of Wight.
And really that's what we wantthem to do of course because we
want to try and establish abreeding population here on the
south coast of England and wehope sort of within 10 years of
starting the project we'llestablish somewhere between six
to ten pairs of eagles within 50to 60 kilometers of the Isle of
(11:49):
Wight from that initialtranslocated population and at
that point the population willbe self-sustaining.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (11:56):
Brilliant. Do they have territories? So at
some point will there be so manyeagles on the Isle of Wight and
surrounds that they need to pushout into other areas. Is that
kind of part of the idea?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (12:08):
That's a good question. I mean, like,
yeah, white-tailed eagles arereally territorial. So, you
know, this is the apex avianpredator. So it's right at the
top of the avian food chain. Andit has really massive territory.
So you're looking at 10 to 30square kilometres.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (12:25):
Wow. So, Steve, shall we wander a little
bit further out onto the saltmarsh.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (12:29):
Well, yeah, sure. We'll see what we can see.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (12:36):
One of Steve's jobs as project officer is to
work with the farming communityon the Isle of Wight and respond
to any local issues or concerns.While in Scotland, evidence
indicates some white-tailedeagles scavenge dead lambs and
very occasionally take small orweak black-faced sheep.
This has been found to be due tothe open-range nature of
(12:56):
agriculture, bad weather, andlack of alternative wild prey.
But the team take concerns fromfarmers and livestock managers
seriously and have worked withresearchers in the Netherlands
and Ireland where there havebeen successful reintroduction
programmes and no cases ofeagles taking lambs or any other
livestock.
(13:17):
So as we go, I have to ask, youmentioned that eagles are
obviously a top apex predator.With a reintroduction like this,
was there ever any worry thatthey might eat some of the
things that maybe people don'twant them to eat, like domestic
livestock, that kind of thing.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (13:33):
Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of
concerns at the outset of theproject from livestock farmers,
there was concerns fromconservation managers, you know,
there were concerns about thetypes of birds they might eat,
or some of the other things thatthey might impact on a landscape
scale.
And of course, you know, there'salso potentially worries from
game or fisheries. But to date,we've had no conflict at all.
(13:55):
And that doesn't mean to saythat we are sitting back and
resting on our laurels. We meeta couple of times a year and we
chat about how the birds aredoing and about the project more
broadly. And it's an opportunityfor anybody to raise any worries
that they might have. Andalongside that, we do a whole
host of really proactiveengagements with landowners,
with land users and conservationgroups too. So we feel things
(14:19):
are going really positively. Andbroadly speaking, most people
are really, really positive andexcited about the project.
So I suppose we'd better stophere and have another little
scan, eh? Yeah.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (14:35):
The tide's pretty much fully out and it's a
great place out on the saltmarsh here, we're kind of
surrounded by the wetland. Soit's a great place to be
scanning and looking for eagles.So Steve, you can't do a job
like yours without being reallypassionate about it. What is it
about eagles that kind of getsyou up in the morning and keeps
(14:57):
you motivated?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (14:58):
The more you watch them, the more interesting
you find them as well. And, youcan get connected with
individuals quite easily becausethey, they're very apparent in
the landscape. When you watchother birds, I enjoy watching
all birds. I think they'refantastic, but you don't
necessarily know that's the sameindividual that you saw
yesterday. Whereas with eagles,you know, which individual it
is. And for me personally, youknow, I've, I've, I've known all
(15:21):
these birds throughout theirlives and that's, so every,
every time I see them, is quitespecial.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (15:28):
But it's not just Steve who enjoys the eagles
being back on the island.
STEVE EGERTON-READ (15:33):
There's lots of people that perhaps didn't
necessarily have an intimateconnection with nature before
who are now thinking, actually,it's really cool and
white-tailed eagles are reallyamazing. And white-tailed eagles
did once have a really deepcultural value to us. In the
Iron Age and the Roman period,these birds were really highly
revered and had high spiritualvalue.
(15:55):
The return of this bird is kindof put the white-tailed eagle
back in that cultural spotlightand we have works of art that
are going around. So I thinkthere was one christmas where
somebody made this beautifulchristmas card with white-tailed
eagle and a santa sleigh in thebackground over The Needles. It
was fantastic. Seriously put inthe spotlight by this fantastic
(16:16):
mural that you can go and see onthe Columbine building in East
Cowes and it's like 12 metershigh and about 60 meters long I
think. And the centrepiece ofthis artwork is this huge
white-tailed eagle in this artdeco style, it's absolutely
beautiful.
It's really becoming part ofIsle of Wight's cultural
identity and you know we'rereally proud here on Isle of
Wight I feel and that we have aplace that it started again
(16:39):
where this resurgence of thisbird in southern England this is
where it happened and we're partof that story.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (16:50):
Just having one last scan out across this
incredible salt marsh. There area few distracting looking
cormorants sitting on the topsof posts, but no eagles. Should
we start wandering back inland?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:06):
I suppose we should.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (17:08):
So the whole aim of the project is to
re-establish a breedingpopulation in the south of
England. The million dollarquestion, have the eagles bred?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:20):
Yes. So in 2023, we're really lucky in
that he
first pair of eagles bred on thesouth coast of England in 240
odd years
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (17:30):
Amazing!
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:30):
So it was actually it was really it was a
really surprising sort of eventbecause the pair were really
young. So it was a pair of birdsthat were released in 2020 and
you'll remember of course I saidto you earlier these birds don't
breed till they're about four orfive normally. So these birds
were three and they bred atthree years old and they raised
a single chick, a male calledG625 and then last year 2024,
(17:53):
they've bred again. And they hadtwo, they're twins.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (17:55):
Oh, amazing!
STEVE EGERTON-READ (17:55):
So a really fantastic moment. You want that
early success. And then when youget it, it's just, it's very,
very satisfying.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (18:03):
Yeah. And on a kind of, on a personal level,
did you feel emotional when theyfledged chicks?
STEVE EGERTON-READ (18:09):
I mean, it was one of those weird things.
You can't, it just feels sosurreal. You don't, don't really
believe it's happening in truth.It's strange because 2023, that
period, you know, the birdsincubate for about 38 days and
then the chicks from a nest foranother 11 weeks. It felt like
an age, every moment you thoughtoh my god like yeah not it's not
(18:31):
happening oh this could gowrong. You worry about things
and time seems to go reallyslowly and then last year you
sort of blink and you miss it.They've done it been there
before it's okay like but ofcourse there's a long way to go,
before we can say your bird'ssecure in Southern England. So
time will tell.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (18:51):
Fingers crossed.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of Wild Tales. If you
liked it, why not give us a likeor a follow? We'll be back soon
with another episode in a coupleof weeks. But if you can't wait
that long, why not check out ourother nature podcast, Nature
(19:12):
Fix. Or if you like your historytoo, there's Back When. I'll see
you next time.
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