Eaglet is on the move to help project

An Angus estate owner has donated a golden eagle chick hatched on his land to bolster numbers in the south of Scotland. Dee Ward, who owns and runs the Rottal Estate near Kirriemuir in the Angus Glens, 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 20 birds moved since the project began in 2018.

Dee said conservation work on his estate resulted in twin eaglets hatching. He said the Tayside Raptor Group had been monitoring a nest on his estate for three or four years.

He added: “The group has been monitoring the nest and this year we had twins. Cat Barlow (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? I said ‘yes, absolutely’.”

Dee is also vice-chairman at Scottish Land and Estates and suggested the golden eagle project draws welcome attention to the conservation work done on sporting estates.

He said: “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 media reports most often linked sporting estates to raptor persecution, rather than preserving species. He said: “The trouble is that bad news often travels fastest, 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.”

Conservationists on the project collected single eagle chicks from broods of young across northern upland areas then raised and released them in an undisclosed southern uplands location.

Each released golden eagle is tagged to provide information on ranging behaviour, survival and health of the birds.

The project has more than tripled the local population of golden eagles in the south of Scotland to 39.

NEW HOME: A golden eagle from the Angus Glens has moved south.