Rare white-tailed eagles return to England's skies

Young white-tailed eagles have been exploring from their Isle of Wight base

Britain's largest bird of prey has returned to England's skies for the first time in 240 years!

White-tailed eagles were once a common sight across southern England until the 18th century when they were hunted to extinction.

The last record of anyone seeing one of the eagles in England was in 1780 at Culver Cliff on the Isle of Wight. They became extinct in the whole of the UK in 1918.

But following a successful re-introduction in Scotland, a special project by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and the Forestry England has been trying to bring them back and has been tracking the eagles' adventures.

What is the project?

It's hoped that, if the birds survive, a breeding programme could be encouraged

Last summer, six white-tailed eagles were released on the Isle of Wight as part of a plan to restore the species to southern England.

The birds were collected from the wild in Scotland, where the species was reintroduced in the 1970s under a similar project, and brought to the island.

The eagles were fitted with GPS trackers to see where they went exploring

They were fitted with trackers so experts could keep tabs on them - now scientists have been following the young birds' movements on their first journeys.

While they mostly stayed in the local area during the winter, the information from the GPS trackers show that now spring is here, the birds have begun to regularly travel to Norfolk, Kent and Somerset.

Two of the eagles flew as far the Yorkshire Moors and even explored the east coast between Whitby and Saltburn-by-Sea!

A similar project in the 1970s re-introduced white-tailed sea eagles to the wild in Scotland

Roy Dennis, founder of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation said: "I have spent much of my life working on the reintroduction of these amazing birds and so watching them take to the skies of the Isle of Wight has been a truly special moment."

Bruce Rothnie, from Forestry England, added: "We are immensely proud that the woodlands we manage on the Isle of Wight and surrounding South Coast are now home to these incredibly rare birds as they return to England's coastline."