Norway’s sea eagle chicks ready for release in Ireland

‘Stunning to see eagles so close'

August 2010: Killarney National Park is celebrating the safe arrival of its latest new residents - 22 white-tailed sea eagles, which had arrived by plane from Norway.

ICONIC: Norway's fjords make the perfect home for the white-tailed sea eagles. Picture: Kjartan Trana

Their arrival represents the latest stage in a bid to reintroduce the bird of prey to Ireland. In a project run by the Golden Eagle Trust, in collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife service of the Department of the Environment, southwest Ireland has been identified as the most suitable area for reintroduction.
For the past few years, ornithologists from Kerry have been travelling to Norway to collect chicks and earlier in the summer they went again. This year's birds came from the islands west and north of Trondheim - the first year that none has been taken from the mainland.

White-tailed sea eagle programme manager Dr Allan Mee said: ‘All the nests were very accessible on small cliffs or on sloping ground. With no predators on the islands eagles can nest on the ground. It was amazing to moor the boat at times just 50 metres from an eagle nest.

‘Seeing the stunning adults so close and hearing their calls remains for me one of the iconic images of Norway. Among the islands and fjords, it's clear why this really is sea eagle country. There's more water than land everywhere you look.'

Prior to Dr Mee's arrival, staff from the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research identified and monitored 69 sea eagle nests on the islands. The birds were then collected and kept in a holding site at Stjordal in the care of Tom Roger Osteras, who has looked after Ireland-bound chicks each year since 2007.

Despite the best efforts to balance the sex ratio, the final tally is thought to be 16 males and just six females, although, as Dr Mee explains: ‘Sexing eagle chicks at such a young age is not foolproof as eagle eggs do not hatch synchronously and first hatched male chicks may overlap in size with later hatched females.'

SAFE DISTANCE: Allan Mee took this picture of an eagle nest on Vikna, in the right of the picture, with a boat moored almost directly below

At least five years before they can breed
It was hoped, he added, that the balance would be redressed during next year's trip to Norway - the project's last. ‘We will need to scour Norway for female chicks in 2011, the last year of the reintroduction to balance the sex ratio. As eagles do not generally breed until they are five years old and may live to 30 or more years gender imbalance in one year is not too critical. However, a strongly biased sex ratio within the overall population would be detrimental.'
The chicks arrived in Kerry at the end of June and have been in spacious flight pens, isolated from humans, until their release which is now imminent. Before release they will be tagged and have transmitters fitted so both the conservationists and the public can track their movements.

Reintroducing sea eagles to Ireland is a challenging proposition. Sea eagles take between five and six years to mature and breed, so no breeding attempts are expected until 2012-2013 and because sea eagles, like other large, long-lived birds, have very low breeding rates, establishing a viable population is dependent on low adult mortality.