Rare white-tailed eagles thrill nature lovers

The eagles were first spotted this year around six weeks ago at Inch

A rare sighting of two of the largest birds of prey in the UK and Ireland near the Londonderry-Donegal border is delighting local nature lovers.

The white-tailed eagles arrived at the Inch Levels Wildfowl Reserve in Burt, County Donegal, around six weeks ago.

The older of the raptors, marked N, is one of a number released in 2021 by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) as part of efforts to reintroduce the eagles to Ireland.

The younger eagle, tagged as 47, is from a cohort of birds brought to Ireland this year, NPWS confirmed.

The white-tailed eagle, or ‘sea eagle’, stands at almost 1m tall

Photographer Conor Corbett, from County Antrim, is among those who have made their way to the Donegal nature reserve to catch a glimpse.

He told BBC News NI he had seen the older bird at Inch before, around three years ago.

“It’s been coming back every winter so I knew it was going to be there,” he said.

Getting the right shot, he added, is “just a matter of checking the area and tree lines”.

“I had spotted N and there perched on the trees was 47. Seeing one is great but two was even better,” he said.

Both birds are part of a programme aimed at reintroducing the eagles to Ireland

Conor added: “Both birds came in pretty close and put on a great display. It’s great to get some shots for reference like the ID tags and colours. You can see by the tail colour that one is a sub adult and the other is a juvenile.”

The white-tailed eagle, or ‘sea eagle’, stands at almost 1m tall, with a huge wingspan of up to 2.4m and a distinctive white tail.

They can live to over 20 years of age and usually begin breeding at five years old.

Boyd Bryce lives on Inch island.

He told BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme the birds have been generating great interest since they were seen for the first time this year around six weeks ago.

He said people were delighted they had made their way “up to Donegal”.

“On Sunday past two residents got some great footage and there’s lovely photographs on social media," he said.

"There is one of the individual sitting right on top of Inch castle. It’s a spectacular photograph."

The birds to have been reintroudced have all been wing-tagged

In a statement, NPWS said a number of white-tailed eagles from its reintroduction programme had visited County Donegal over the last number of months.

From 2007 to 2011, 100 eagle chicks were brought from Norway and released in Killarney National Park, County Kerry.

The conservation effort was to secure a viable population following extinction from Ireland in the late 19th Century.

Phase two of the programme continued in 2020 with more young birds released at a number of sites across Ireland.

Each was wing-tagged, with colours relating to their year of birth and many were fitted with satellite tags to track their locations.