Golden eagles released in Scotland with hope they will fly south

Conservationists launch project to restore bird numbers with view to reintroducing them in northern England and Lake District

Severin Carrell

Scotland editor

Tuesday 12 December 2017 10.48 GMTLast modified on Tuesday 12 December 2017 10.56 GMT

Conservationists hope golden eagles will start reappearing over northern England and the Lake District as part of a project to release up to 10 eagles in southern Scotland.

The birds will start to be released at a secret location south of Edinburgh from next year in a £1.5m programme by conservationists and landowners to restore golden eagle numbers in the southern uplands, where they have struggled to survive.

The young eagles are expected to soon fly over the English border in search of food and new territories as they are released in the Moffat hills each autumn over the next five years.

Golden eagles are in effect extinct in northern England after decades of persecution by gamekeepers, the spread of commercial conifer forests and inadequate food supplies, and there are none in Wales.

Although the Cumbrian Fells, north Pennines and the moors of Northumberland could be suitable territories, there was until recently only one golden eagle in the Lake District, an elderly male whose mate died in 2004. It was not spotted at its Haweswater nest last year and is assumed to be dead.

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Reintroduction of Hawaiian crow could happen as early as next year

By TOM CALLIS Hawaii Tribune-Herald

The alala hasn’t been seen in the wild for about 13 years, but an effort to prevent Hawaii Island’s native crow from going the way of the dodo could soon begin to pay off.

According to a draft of the state’s revised Wildlife Action Plan, there are now 114 alala being raised in captivity — enough to begin reintroducing the birds to the island’s forests as early as next year.

But any celebrations at this point might be premature.

Scott Fretz, the state’s Fish and Wildlife chief, said funding still needs to be secured to support reintroduction — which includes tracking, veterinary support and predator control — and give them the best chance of survival.

He didn’t have a cost estimate immediately available, but a 2008 alala recovery plan drafted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated the total cost of implementation at $14.38 million over a five-year period. That estimate included breeding in addition to reintroduction and other support costs.

“We’ve got some funding to do this; we don’t have all the funding we need,” he said.

“We’re still looking for a complete funding package to sustain it in the long term.”

Fretz said additional funding could come from state or federal sources.

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White Stork from reintroduction scheme in Italy, shot in Malta on first migration

BY GOZO NEWS · SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Update: BirdLife Malta has discovered that the flock of ten White Storks that has been in Malta since Monday includes storks from a conservation reintroduction project in Italy.

“The flock was targeted on Tuesday in Marsa, with one of the birds killed bearing a colour numbered ring. The White Stork is part of a flock originating from a re-introduction scheme set-up in Udine, North East Italy, and was on its first ever migration south to the Africa.”

When the White Storks arrived on the mainland from Comino on Monday, they landed on a crane in Marsa, attracting many local bird watchers and photographers.

BLM said that 3 of the flock were seen to have coloured rings on their legs, a process carried out to monitor the birds’ movements from a distance. Birdwatchers, using telescopes, were able to read the details on two of the rings, IAB PA190 and IAB PA200, the details of which were sent to the Italian ringing scheme to confirm the origin of the birds.

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