An Angus estate owner has donated a golden eagle chick hatched on his land to bolster numbers in the south of Scotland.
Dee Ward owns and runs the Rottal Estate near Kirriemuir in the Angus Glens.
He joined peers from other sporting estates across Scotland in allowing conservationists to move eaglets from his land to the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project.
The process is known as ‘translocation’, with twenty birds moved since the project began in 2018.
Dee said conservation work on his estate resulted in twin eaglets hatching.
Twin golden eagles delight Angus estate
He said the Tayside Raptor Group had been monitoring a nest on his estate for three or four years.
“When golden eagles are juvenile they make a nest but they are not very successful until they are a bit more mature.
“The group have been monitoring the nest and this year we had twins.
“Cat Barlow [from the South of Scotland project] approached me and said we know you’ve got twins. Would you be willing to donate one of them to them to the project?
“And I said: yes, absolutely.”
Dee is also vice chair at Scottish Land and Estates. He suggested the golden eagle project draws welcome attention to the conservation work done on sporting estates.
“There are a lot of polarised views about upland estates and all the rest of it. But it’s really nice when a number of us have managed to donate chicks to show we are really keen on our conservation work.”
He acknowledged that media reports most often linked sporting estates to raptor persecution, rather than preserving species.
“The trouble is that bad news often travels fastest. That normally hits the headlines.
“But there’s a lot of good news out there too. There are a lot of estates working on conservation, generally, and that benefits raptors.
“Talking about Rottal, we have golden eagles, peregrines, merlins, goshawks and others nesting there, which is really nice.
“The key is creating that wildlife balance.”
Golden eagles ‘soar in southern skies’
Conservationists working on the project collected single eagle chicks from broods of young across northern upland areas.
They then raised and released them in an undisclosed location in the southern uplands.
Each released golden eagle is satellite tagged to create as much information as possible on the ranging behaviour, survival and health of the birds.
The project has already more than tripled the local population of golden eagles in the south of Scotland to 39.
Dr Cat Barlow is project manager for the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project.
She said: “This has been made possible through the great care estates and raptor workers have taken to help us source healthy eagle chicks and provide them with welcoming new habitats.
“It is fantastic to see these majestic birds soar in southern skies once again.”
Conversation