Theeagleshavelanded... again!
KERRY Airport welcomed a special set of visitors last Friday – white-tailed eagles, which have been flown in from Norway with the intention of releasing them into the wild here in Ireland and, indeed, the Kerry-Limerick border.
Allan Mee is Manager of the Irish White-tailed Eagle Reintroduction project, a project which saw its initial phase run from 2007 to 2011. On that occasion, Killarney National Park was considered a prime area to hold the reintroduction, being one of Ireland’s largest parks as well as an historical breeding site of this bird.
When those birds were first brought into Kerry, concerned members of the pubic gathered at Kerry Airport to protest against the joint NPWSGolden Eagle Trust plans, and fears about the affect the reintroduction would have on the farming community were especially keen.
Happily, Allan explained, those fears have long subsided – to the point where some farmers even help keep an eye over sites where you might find the birds today. The project as a whole, indeed, has proven very successful, he added.
‘‘ The idea was to build on what was happening in Donegal with the reintroduction of the golden eagle,’’ Allan explained.
‘‘What happened then was that young birds were taken from nests in the wild in Norway, and released in Killarney once capable of taking flight. It takes a few years to reach maturity, and they eventually dispersed throughout the country and started breeding in 2012.
‘‘ They’re now breeding at locations throughout Munster and as far north as Conamara. Twenty-six chicks have fledged from nests in the wild in Ireland. We’re looking at another six chicks this year. Kerry has been the stronghold of breeding pairs, with all but three of the nine breeding pairs in the country being based in the county.’’
The birds have now been brought to two different locations: Lough Derg; and on the Shannon Estuary, on the Kerry-Limerick border between Tarbert and Glin. They will eventually be released at these locations in the coming weeks.
Poor weather in Norway led to an equally poor breeding season this time around, so only ten birds were brought over on this occasion. But more birds are expected over the next couple of years, and some will be released in Killarney National Park.
‘‘We wanted to bring a bit more balance to our ecosystems and restore some lost biodiversity; these birds had been here but would have faced human persecution in the early 19th Century,’’ Allan said. ‘‘But we also know with white-tailed eagles, there’s a big eco-tourism benefit. At our first breeding site at Lough Derg, Clare County Council established a viewing site, and in that first year we had over 10,000 people come to see it in two and a half months.’’
The early years of the project saw a number of birds being poisoned, although these incidents were thought to be accidental, with the poison intended for species such as foxes instead. Since poison use became illegal in 2010, the problem has not vanished but has reduced greatly.
‘‘ There was a perception in the farming community that these might affect livestock, but those fears haven’t been founded,’’ Allan said. ‘‘Happily, that’s a much better situation today. The relationship is now very good, but we’d like to reassure farmers again that the birds pose no threat. In some locations, some farmers actually keep an eye on them, while in other locations the birds have kind of blended into the background.
‘‘I’d like to thank the people who’ve accepted them over the years, but I’d also like to get the message out that the threat of poisoning is still there, and remind people that it is illegal.’’