Hatched chicks boost hopes for revival of sea eagles
Eight pairs of eagles have this year nested and laid eggs, with five nests being producing in counties Cork, Clare, Galway and Kerry.
White-tailed sea eagle chicks have hatched in Lough Derg, near Mountshannon, Co Clare, Glengarriff, Co Cork, and Killarney National Park. Pairs also successfully hatched chicks at a nest in Co Galway for the first time and at another site in Kerry.
Three pairs nesting in Kerry failed to hatch.
Project manager Allan Mee yesterday said hopes are high that the successful pairs will raise chicks to form the basis of a viable population in Ireland.
“In 2013, we had our first chicks reared in the wild in Clare but, this year, we are excited to see that pairs are nesting as far away as Galway, although Kerry remains the stronghold for the species,” he said.
Dr Mee said the eagles had benefited from the support of local communities and landowners and they had the potential to enhance rural economies, especially through wildlife tourism.
The project began in 2007 and, over five years, 100 young Norwegian eagles were released in Killarney National Park.
Twenty-nine of the eagles died, mainly from poisoning.
The breeding population has increased from one pair in 2012, to 14 pairs in 2014.
In Glengarriff, local conservation ranger Clare Heardman, who has been monitoring the pair’s progress, said: “It has been an incredible experience watching the eagles working towards what will hopefully be their first breeding success, having lost a chick at two weeks old in 2014 due to bad weather.
“The nestling is looking big and strong now at over six weeks and it is very exciting to think 2015 could be the first year in over a century that a Cork-born white-tailed eagle is seen flying again.”
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