Two sea eagles first to be born in Cairngorms since 1800s

FOR more than 200 years they have been missing from the heart of the Cairngorms.

But, for the first time since the 1800s, a pair of sea eagles have bred successfully in the national park to produce offspring.

And the two fledglings have been named Victoria and Albert – after the monarch and her husband who started the Royal family’s love affair with the area back around the same time the birds stopped breeding locally.

The fledglings hatched on the Mar Estate, one of six estates in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership.

Although sea eagles have been in the area for several years, this is their first successful breeding attempt.

The breeding pair are one of five territorial couples in the Cairngorms National Park this year. Sea eagles, also known as white-tailed eagles, are thought not to have bred in this part of the Cairngorms since the early 19th century.

The species became extinct in Scotland in 1918 but, after an absence of almost 60 years, they were reintroduced to the West Coast in 1975, using Norwegian birds.

Further reintroductions in Ross-shire then Fife have resulted in the national population gradually expanding to around 130 pairs, with those in the National Park tending to be a mix of birds from the east and west. The breeding pair on Mar Estate is a male released in 2011 as part of the Fife re-introduction and a female believed to be from the West Coast.

Mark Nicolson, a proprietor of Mar Estate, said ‘Our hopes that they might settle and breed have been realised. We look forward to their return next year.’