Sea Eagles return to the Isle of Wight...

[Stuart Philpott]

@Box Brownie I haven't checked in for a few days - no internet Been feeling very cut off!!

I've heard rumour that these have been released just down the road from me. As yet I've seen nothing. I'm half a mile from the coast so will be very excited to see one!

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but there was a local consultation and some concerns were raised re our red squirrels, which I have in my garden. The point has been made that generally the squirrels will be amongst trees and with such a large wing span, the eagles are unlikely to take them.

I'm currently reading 'Wilding' which makes for some interesting reading. I believe there is some rewilding going on within a half mile of me too. Our landscape is quite different to that of Knepp so it will be interesting how it turns out.

Be, please keep us updated,tis fascinating to see this from the viewpoint of a local.......me I sort of think your wonderful Red Squiggles will be ok bar the odd chance opportunity that any predator will always take. Somehow i'd be amazed if eagles meant the demise of reds .........................both species had to inhabit the same coastline in the past ..both species have issues with/ from us not each other. They'll be ok

 

[Ed Sutton]

Jerry thanks for the reply ,it was what Monbiot specifically means by rewilding rather than a more general definition that I was after. Specifically that because it linked to my second question. Basically forgive me not being the sharpest tool in the box................... i'm trying to get my head around exactly why the hill farmers are so adverse......obviously take a mans livelyhood away( viable or no) and he'll be upset,but I feel there is more going on that I haven't understood. Shame I am not up to speed on all this,my apologies. I understand that the hill farming might no longer be viable ,the bit I'm missing is if Monbiot had a mechanism to keep the farmers in their homes and somehow make a living from said rewilded farms ?

Buddy on every level if you asked me if I thought replacing sheep farming in the uplands with a return to what ever those uplands should look like might be a good thing . I would be all for it. Oh hell yeah !!!!!!!!! That said I'd also be looking for an alternate way to keep those rural communities in place. Maybe that isn't possible dare I say viable??

As of yet you haven't given me a reason to stop the hill farmers from screaming. Monbiot's proposals seem right up my street(viewed without knowledge). BUT, It is a big ask to throw away generations of a life style....as we oldies saw with the coal miners.

Don't worry on part deux i'm a patient man when you have time would be fab
take care kiddo
stu

The whole rewilding issue is one of ideology, politics and the cultural disconnect of the metropolitan elite from the countryside (working and wild).

The likes of Monbiot don't give a flying whatsit for the people who are rooted in the hills. His sort have no concept of belonging to a landscape, to a culture, to the notion of a way of life. This is where the conflict comes from. IMO

As for keeping hill farmers on the land come rewilding. Not a hope. They'll be driven out and their homes occupied by commuters and incomer ecologists.

Only today James Rebanks tweeted this:
"Wildlife tourism can be great - I’ve visited many of the best projects in the world in my previous working life But it isn’t remotely capable of replacing farm income on most farms We do wildlife tourism - so trust me when I say this - it is a tough gig "

 

[Bebop]

Be, please keep us updated,tis fascinating to see this from the viewpoint of a local.......me I sort of think your wonderful Red Squiggles will be ok bar the odd chance opportunity that any predator will always take. Somehow i'd be amazed if eagles meant the demise of reds .........................both species had to inhabit the same coastline in the past ..both species have issues with/ from us not each other. They'll be ok

I think they will be okay too. There are often hares in the open fields which might be more at risk.

I got the impression that the eagles were likely to leave the area quite quickly, but then return in a year or two, but I could be wrong. I hope I get chance to see one before they disappear!

I did volunteer to help with the monitoring of them - I think they had loads of offers.

 

[Box Brownie]

I think they will be okay too. There are often hares in the open fields which might be more at risk.

I got the impression that the eagles were likely to leave the area quite quickly, but then return in a year or two, but I could be wrong. I hope I get chance to see one before they disappear!

I did volunteer to help with the monitoring of them - I think they had loads of offers.

I echo Stu's @Stuart Philpott request, please keep us up to date as available/appropriate......in the meantime, i had not appreciated that you actually have Reds in your garden, post more pictures of your garden visitors

 

[jerry12953]

I think Monbiot's idea of rewilding is to take grazing animals off a piece of land and let nature take its course. The larger the area the more successful that would be, but you do see small patches which are rewilding of their own accord without it being called re-wilding. For example for years I used to do a regular bird survey (BBS) on an OS square near my home. One side of a fence i used to follow was heavily grazed improved grassland, which had virtually zero wildlife on it. On the other side all sheep had been removed some time ago by a different owner, and it was slowly reverting to woodland. Imperceptively trees were creeping up the hillside from the river valley below. Needless to say the birdlife was far richer.

You can read a bit about this in this blog post -

https://wp.me/p2BFlt-my

One might imagine then that if the entire British Isles were "rewilded" in this way it would become largely wooded. If so where would all the non-woodland species live? I certainly couldn't understand this. But then I read Isabella Tree's "Wilding" where she explains why and how she and her partner re-wilded their estate (Knepp) in Sussex and created a whole range of exciting habitats and the wildlife to match. The answer was introducing various species of grazing animals, equivalent to those that would naturally have occured here in past milennia. These grazers created habitats that other species thrived in, and the result was a massive increase in diversity and numbers of wildlife.

So re-wilding can also involve re-introducing species that have been lost often due to human interference. An example of this locally is the re-introduction of pine martens, which were exterminated some time ago. It is thought that they will keep grey squirrel numbers down whilst leaving any remaining red squirrels (and there are still some) unaffected. It is thought that red squirrels and pine martens evolved together and thus are able to co-exist; whereas grey squirrels are introduced and therefore not able live alongside pine martens.

Back to the "f word". Monbiot shows conclusively that without subsidies sheep farming in the Welsh uplands is quite uneconomic, and totally dependent on subsidies. Yet the farming lobby seems to expect that WE the public should continue to pay for sheep farming in the uplands to continue, when there is very limited public good being created. In fact quite opposite; over the decades sheep have nibbled away at natural habitats until there is very little remaining over large areas. And natural grassland has been widely removed by farmers and replaced with "impoved" grassland that supports little more than sheep. Hence the wet deserts of the Welsh uplands.

Many/most Welsh hill farmers are so negative about changing their publicly-funded lifestyles that they refuse to consider any alternatives. There is quite a campaign going on at the moment about it. I hope i'll get to that soon.......

 

[jerry12953]

The whole rewilding issue is one of ideology, politics and the cultural disconnect of the metropolitan elite from the countryside (working and wild).

The likes of Monbiot don't give a flying whatsit for the people who are rooted in the hills. His sort have no concept of belonging to a landscape, to a culture, to the notion of a way of life. This is where the conflict comes from. IMO

As for keeping hill farmers on the land come rewilding. Not a hope. They'll be driven out and their homes occupied by commuters and incomer ecologists.

Only today James Rebanks tweeted this:
"Wildlife tourism can be great - I’ve visited many of the best projects in the world in my previous working life But it isn’t remotely capable of replacing farm income on most farms We do wildlife tourism - so trust me when I say this - it is a tough gig "

Ed, I'm sorry to say this, but on this subect you're very badly informed.

Without the subsidies they would have been forced to leave alreadey for economic reasons.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Ed, I'm sorry to say this, but on this subect you're very badly informed.

Without the subsidies they would have been forced to leave alreadey for economic reasons.

Please make assumptions, Jerry.

You say that hill farming creates little 'public good' but does the opposite. If wildlife is the only public good that's probably the case. But can community and culture not be a public good too?

Take the farms off the hills and you increase the urbanisation and extend the urban/rural disconnect.

 

[Ed Sutton]

James Rebanks today:

"I’m all for more nature... but we need nature, and farming, culture, history and decent human life "

 

[jerry12953]

There is some benefit culturally in keeping hill farmers on the land - especially here in Wales. But the problem (here, anyway) is that they refuse to change their way of life or adapt to changing conditions. They EXPECT their way of life to be maintained whatever the cost - financially and otherwise.

Actually people have been moving off the land in the uplands for decades, probably 100 years or more. You can see this in the number of tumbledown houses and cottages everywhere in the uplands. It's called "change" and happens all the time.

 

[jerry12953]

Another issue is that for so long wildlife has been seen by many upland farmers as "the enemy" that it is can be difficult for them to adapt to a different mindset.

 

[Bebop]

I echo Stu's @Stuart Philpott request, please keep us up to date as available/appropriate......in the meantime, i had not appreciated that you actually have Reds in your garden, post more pictures of your garden visitors

Will do.

I feed the squirrels hazelnuts and sometimes peanuts - they bury everything they don't eat, which can get expensive. I don't encourage them to come too close as I have a cat, so I often photograph them through glass. I should make more effort to get some good pics. In some areas of the island they are fairly tame.

 

[Bebop]

Another garden visitor - been making quite a mess of the garden lately, and destroyed my fatball feeder on this visit. 1/13second!

Have been thinking I should get a hide.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Actually people have been moving off the land in the uplands for decades, probably 100 years or more. You can see this in the number of tumbledown houses and cottages everywhere in the uplands. It's called "change" and happens all the time.

Indeed. The moors to the east of where I live are littered with the remains of farmsteads, some of which were still occupied and farmed into the 1950s or more recently, which were abandoned when they became uneconomic or when the water company bought them out in order to remove the sheep.

I can't comment on the Welsh situation but whenever change is threatened or forced upon people by 'outsiders' there is naturally going to be resistance and animosity. Nobody likes having their world turned upside down.

 

[Box Brownie]

Another issue is that for so long wildlife has been seen by many upland farmers as "the enemy" that it is can be difficult for them to adapt to a different mindset.

And all too often in history it has been about man's enduring attempts to mould the countryside to "his" will. Though not wishing to divert attention from this specific subject, a good part of what has gone on and accelerating now is the fires in the Amazon is that attitude to wilder places.

 

[Box Brownie]

Will do.

I feed the squirrels hazelnuts and sometimes peanuts - they bury everything they don't eat, which can get expensive. I don't encourage them to come too close as I have a cat, so I often photograph them through glass. I should make more effort to get some good pics. In some areas of the island they are fairly tame.

View attachment 253832

View attachment 253831

How delightful, first is a sort of classic pose!

I agree about the cost , the local grey squirrel has hazel nuts and boy can it/they shift them quickly for caching. In the absence of the nuts they will take the sunflower hearts we feed to the birds.

That reminds me, we are heading towards colder times and reduced natural foods so must order more sunflower hearts

 

[jerry12953]

Indeed. The moors to the east of where I live are littered with the remains of farmsteads, some of which were still occupied and farmed into the 1950s or more recently, which were abandoned when they became uneconomic or when the water company bought them out in order to remove the sheep.

I can't comment on the Welsh situation but whenever change is threatened or forced upon people by 'outsiders' there is naturally going to be resistance and animosity. Nobody likes having their world turned upside down.

The Welsh situation is complicated by the fact that the farming community is like a reservoir for the Welsh language. Whenever they feel most threatened the language issue comes out. It's like their nuclear option.

I'm sure Monbiot's arguments about upland sheep farming could have been made about other areas - eg the Pennines. It is probably unfortunate he chose to make such an example of the Welsh situation but he wrote about what he saw and experienced.

And not to forget that he was also VERY critical of many of the conservation bodies as well.

 

[sphexx]

And all too often in history it has been about man's enduring attempts to mould the countryside to "his" will. .

And of course ‘rewilding’ is just a continuation of this , not that against (some definition of) ‘rewilding’, rather the contrary.

 

[jerry12953]

And of course ‘rewilding’ is just a continuation of this , not that against (some definition of) ‘rewilding’, rather the contrary.

Rewilding in Monbiot's sense is not to interfere and to just let nature take its course, so it's not really another example of man's attempt to mould the countryside.

 

[Box Brownie]

And of course ‘rewilding’ is just a continuation of this , not that against (some definition of) ‘rewilding’, rather the contrary.

Absolutely, though in a way/ways to restore some previous harmony between the natural (?) world and man benefiting from its fruitfulness.

FWIW we currently rely on a single cultivar of banana. It is now at risk of complete loss on a global scale because it is a monoculture. There are apparently no other commercially viable alternatives. Is that not an example of a failure to care for 'nature' in general and the hubris approach to the way we have moulded it????

 

[sphexx]

Rewilding in Monbiot's sense is not to interfere and to just let nature take its course, so it's not really another example of man's attempt to mould the countryside.

I disagree because he is not (AFAIK) advocating to let nature take its course since he wants to exclude H sapiens who is also a part of nature — there you ... definitions again, a bit like br*xit .

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Lads sorry slow to follow up cheers for the words directed towards me tis all very very complex. We loose skills, an expertise, very relative to the land when rural communities feel the bite of what some call progress. There is only one really important word in all this and that is sustainable. I don't personally feel sheep are the best use of uplands, not terribly enamoured with how they affect the hills. that said............ I'd find it much harder stopping the subsidy to a hill farmer scraping out a living than the fella with well ya know hundreds/thousands of acres.

An ecosystem isn't a fixed entity even without our our intervention there is always an ebb and flow of species within it. yeah I guess without man we should be largely covered by woodland bar altitudes above tree line. Maybe the species count would be more diverse Just the sheer numbers we have an adverse effect on might well nullify diversity of habitat! . We have created many wonderful habitats heath moor water ....... our farmland can be one. The problems is our somewhat dare I say lazy attitude to food production monoculture is always going to be a fight against nature.But we are clever and make DTT and on and.......

Technology, civilization is moving so fast We need folks living on the land ,but there is one key word for me in all this,their actions must be sustainable. I think we need to think bigger than eccomonics, ie money. We need to muse what we can sustain.

Close to me a lovely man had a dream of a legacy he could leave to us........................... So far they have knocked in a couple of million trees their little infant wood is three and a half thousand acres or so. I'm blessed to be watching some mad form or rewilding myself. I can't say I can get the hours in the field I want............... but what I can see is jaw dropping . It's utterly stunning the sheer volume of life,when all the sprays stop It's amazing how fast nature is coming back. Fills a country boy with hope!!

Be cheers for the squiggle pics Maybe it's something in having a species at home that makes it more ordinary but you need to put a serious head on those guys and have some fun.......................... so jealous

Jerry, we are too many, we have to manage what we have left, habitat wise. .................we need people whom have their environment in their soul. Sadly my words to express that are lacking. They have skills relevent to where they live,an'some I don't have an answer for your sheep farmers me I'd be searching for an alternate revenue stream to sheep if I was blessed to have a hill farm .

My first job out of school was in forestry, I got to work with two guys that retired that year two 65 year olds.I was 19. Not only could those old sods do 3X more than 3 kids who were not going to be out done by an old codger(humbling) their knoweldge of woodland management was astounding. As we dig ourselves ever deeper into the mire we are loosing skill sets. The very ones that have potential to help us . That's how I see those sheep farmers relative to the uplands.

Oh and god forbid I'd come between a Welsh guy and his sheep

it's just not cricket

 

[jerry12953]

I disagree because he is not (AFAIK) advocating to let nature take its course since he wants to exclude H sapiens who is also a part of nature — there you ... definitions again, a bit like br*xit .

Whether we are part of nature or not is one of the most profound questions around. It's at the root of many of our environmental dilemmas, in my opinion. And how amazing that it should have come up in a photography forum!

Lads sorry slow to follow up cheers for the words directed towards me tis all very very complex. We loose skills, an expertise, very relative to the land when rural communities feel the bite of what some call progress. There is only one really important word in all this and that is sustainable. I don't personally feel sheep are the best use of uplands, not terribly enamoured with how they affect the hills. that said............ I'd find it much harder stopping the subsidy to a hill farmer scraping out a living than the fella with well ya know hundreds/thousands of acres.

An ecosystem isn't a fixed entity even without our our intervention there is always an ebb and flow of species within it. yeah I guess without man we should be largely covered by woodland bar altitudes above tree line. Maybe the species count would be more diverse Just the sheer numbers we have an adverse effect on might well nullify diversity of habitat! . We have created many wonderful habitats heath moor water ....... our farmland can be one. The problems is our somewhat dare I say lazy attitude to food production monoculture is always going to be a fight against nature.But we are clever and make DTT and on and.......

Technology, civilization is moving so fast We need folks living on the land ,but there is one key word for me in all this,their actions must be sustainable. I think we need to think bigger than eccomonics, ie money. We need to muse what we can sustain.

Close to me a lovely man had a dream of a legacy he could leave to us........................... So far they have knocked in a couple of million trees their little infant wood is three and a half thousand acres or so. I'm blessed to be watching some mad form or rewilding myself. I can't say I can get the hours in the field I want............... but what I can see is jaw dropping . It's utterly stunning the sheer volume of life,when all the sprays stop It's amazing how fast nature is coming back. Fills a country boy with hope!!

Be cheers for the squiggle pics Maybe it's something in having a species at home that makes it more ordinary but you need to put a serious head on those guys and have some fun.......................... so jealous

Jerry, we are too many, we have to manage what we have left, habitat wise. .................we need people whom have their environment in their soul. Sadly my words to express that are lacking. They have skills relevent to where they live,an'some I don't have an answer for your sheep farmers me I'd be searching for an alternate revenue stream to sheep if I was blessed to have a hill farm .

My first job out of school was in forestry, I got to work with two guys that retired that year two 65 year olds.I was 19. Not only could those old sods do 3X more than 3 kids who were not going to be out done by an old codger(humbling) their knoweldge of woodland management was astounding. As we dig ourselves ever deeper into the mire we are loosing skill sets. The very ones that have potential to help us . That's how I see those sheep farmers relative to the uplands.

Oh and god forbid I'd come between a Welsh guy and his sheep

it's just not cricket

Stu, that is a very heartfelt post. You've obviously spent a long time pondering on these things. I don't necessarily agree with everything you say but I do respect your opinions. We could do with more people like you working on the land! I do particularly agree that there is always an ebb and flow of species within an ecosystem. I've known quite a few ecologists in my time and they do tend to think of an ecosystem as being fixed. That is why re-wilding is such an interesting idea. It allows nature to find its own balance.

Amazing to think that one man could plant that many trees.....it sounds like an amazing project.

I said I'd write a part 2 of one of my earlier posts.....well I've done it in the form of a blog post. If you're interested here's the link. Beware: contains history lesson!

https://talesfromwildwales.co.uk/2019/08/30/the-r-word/

 

[sphexx]

Whether we are part of nature or not is one of the most profound questions around. It's at the root of many of our environmental dilemmas, in my opinion. And how amazing that it should have come up in a photography forum!



Stu, that is a very heartfelt post. You've obviously spent a long time pondering on these things. I don't necessarily agree with everything you say but I do respect your opinions. We could do with more people like you working on the land! I do particularly agree that there is always an ebb and flow of species within an ecosystem. I've known quite a few ecologists in my time and they do tend to think of an ecosystem as being fixed. That is why re-wilding is such an interesting idea. It allows nature to find its own balance.

Amazing to think that one man could plant that many trees.....it sounds like an amazing project.

I said I'd write a part 2 of one of my earlier posts.....well I've done it in the form of a blog post. If you're interested here's the link. Beware: contains history lesson!

https://talesfromwildwales.co.uk/2019/08/30/the-r-word/

2 points, one to support Stu, I have found farmers (these are ‘small’ farmers not wheat barons etc) to be surprisingly* knowledge able about all kinds of countryside things. (*Surprisingly because they are mostly men of few words and tend not to offer information freely.)

The other point to whether Man is a part of nature. Since it’s in the news at present, take the ‘pristine’ Amazon rain forest presumed to only have a few hunter gatherers before Europeans arrived but now it seems there was a lot of very sophisticated agriculture going on within the forest (I don’t know if anyone knows how much) which has been largely covered up by the forest once the people left, possibly due to introduced diseases and so on associated with the arrival of the Europeans.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Yes ages Jerry tis from me heart.... two attempts because I'm a clutz with words and wanted to try and measure up to all your(collective) elegent posts above . For me complete agreement isn't needed the debate being more important .

Jerry my inabilities have lead you astray my humbles :The man whom is responsible for the wood has passed sadly,A self made super rich guy who happened to have one of his houses locally. He hasn't planted the trees himself. He, bought huge swathes of land and employed folks to get the ball rolling and has left funds to keep that ball rolling. What i'm seeing really is jaw dropping Jerry I am seeing clouds of butterflies like when we were children,ha it gives me goose bumps and as I say hope. It's the speed/scale of recovery of mum nature Jerry,that's what is really amazing me. In the big scheme 31/2 thousand acres is tiny, it gives me so much hope because if we(humans) got our house in order ,so much can recover. I can physically see it happening

It will a huge shame if your summit to sea project is lost ,(just read the blog posts). I don't hold to a view of it's my way or the highway mate.one needs to be constantly open to suggestion............. learning or we stagnate. It's a base problems us humans seem to have ,this I am right attitude .too much ego too much self interest To me, from the words in your blog that's the bit holding the sheep farms back. While on every level i'm all for keeping those folks in their lands and letting them speak the language they want and tried to outline as best I can why I feel that way ,in my heart, they need to look forwards be more forgiving of other points of view.

Ya gotta smile mate an English guy trying to defend sheep farming against a welsh guy. But I still have a huge question mark about sheeps and their effect on the hills and still have no alternate revenue stream to keep those hill farmers and their communities alive. I have no answers sadly and share the sadness about your rewilding project being faught against .

 

[sphexx]

@jerry12953 I’ve read your interesting blog post. On a general point, ‘separatist’ of all kinds never seem to appreciate the government will still bugger them even when it’s ‘their own’ government .
On ’Summit to the Sea’ it still looks top down rather than bottom up to me so I can see why it generates suspicion. There are a lot of fine words about local consultation etc etc but if it were truly local the words would not be needed.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

2 points, one to support Stu, I have found farmers (these are ‘small’ farmers not wheat barons etc) to be surprisingly* knowledge able about all kinds of countryside things. (*Surprisingly because they are mostly men of few words and tend not to offer information freely.)

The other point to whether Man is a part of nature. Since it’s in the news at present, take the ‘pristine’ Amazon rain forest presumed to only have a few hunter gatherers before Europeans arrived but now it seems there was a lot of very sophisticated agriculture going on within the forest (I don’t know if anyone knows how much) which has been largely covered up by the forest once the people left, possibly due to introduced diseases and so on associated with the arrival of the Europeans.

I think there are theories that it the case in North america too Rich, that their effects on the land were way more than simple hunter gathers. That maybe slightly left field of sophisticated agriculture in a conventional sense . But a base habitat manipulation on a scale unthought of for such primative (lol primative) people , is undenibly sophisticated agriculture. Not so much cultivation more habitat management to create surplus. but when they grew cultivated food did they use monoculture??.....have a dig for the three sisters maize beans squash

It's that base harmony in which those native peoples live within their ecosystem that is so jaw dropping, proper astounding and sustainable !! I guess basically i see these small farmers here, the woodsmen I spoke of etc etc, as being our last vestige of that knowledge pool.

I think Man has to be considered part of nature until such time as she sees fit for us not to be. But until that time we have to be evaluated as part of the ecosystem simply because our effects on everything else are so huge.

 

[rob-nikon]

Saw this pop up on my Twitter feed. It seems one of the eagles has made a trip from IoW across London and into Essex! Fly straight over Big Ben too.

http://www.roydennis.org/2019/09/01/amazing-flight-essex/

Good to know they all have trackers

 

[Box Brownie]

Saw this pop up on my Twitter feed. It seems one of the eagles has made a trip from IoW across London and into Essex! Fly straight over Big Ben too.

http://www.roydennis.org/2019/09/01/amazing-flight-essex/

Good to know they all have trackers

Well that is some bit of travelling!!!

As the article seems suggest it is finding its way 'about'........, though in regard to the plan I wonder where it will settle down into a (juvenile?) territory? And as such, all being well, return to the IoW to breed?

 

[jerry12953]

@jerry12953 I’ve read your interesting blog post. On a general point, ‘separatist’ of all kinds never seem to appreciate the government will still bugger them even when it’s ‘their own’ government .
On ’Summit to the Sea’ it still looks top down rather than bottom up to me so I can see why it generates suspicion. There are a lot of fine words about local consultation etc etc but if it were truly local the words would not be needed.

Yes, it is top-down in one sense in that the organisation is based in England. And it is the feeling that it is being imposed on them that they really dislike (even if it isn't!) However the project was dreamed up to two local conservationists, who I imagine are very disheartened by what has happened. Neither of them are landowners or farmers though. It is the sort of project that would NEVER come out of the indigenous welsh farming "community". It may be that they are too busy earning a living to come up with something new but there just isn't the imagination amongst them to do something different. I'm generalising, of course.

 

[jerry12953]

Saw this pop up on my Twitter feed. It seems one of the eagles has made a trip from IoW across London and into Essex! Fly straight over Big Ben too.

http://www.roydennis.org/2019/09/01/amazing-flight-essex/

Good to know they all have trackers

Amazing story!

 

[Bebop]

Saw this pop up on my Twitter feed. It seems one of the eagles has made a trip from IoW across London and into Essex! Fly straight over Big Ben too.

http://www.roydennis.org/2019/09/01/amazing-flight-essex/

Good to know they all have trackers

Ha ha! I'd just come to share the same story!! Have had my head down processing photos.

A few people on the island have managed photos, and everyone is being asked not to share locations until they have settled. I haven't seen anything

 

[davholla]

If I were to go there in 2021 would I have a decent chance of seeing them?

 

[jerry12953]

Ha ha! I'd just come to share the same story!! Have had my head down processing photos.

A few people on the island have managed photos, and everyone is being asked not to share locations until they have settled. I haven't seen anything

Cough......

 

[Bebop]

Cough......

No I really haven't! I've seen some great shots though - one is a phone pic of lots of corvids bothering one. It wasn't yours was it??

Since this one was named Culver I thought maybe they'd released them near Culver cliffs - which is not near me. However that tracking looks like maybe they were - or perhaps they released them in several places?

If I were to go there in 2021 would I have a decent chance of seeing them?

No guarantees yet. They need to establish themselves and apparently this is unlikely if they are disturbed. I've been told if we are patient they will become a regular sighting.

It is really frustrating being shown pics and yet not being told where - on the one hand I understand, but there is a sense of elitism to those in the know.

 

[jerry12953]

No, I'm nowhere near the IoW, am holed up in my retreat in the Welsh hills!

But regarding the WTE's I know I'd rather see a bird that is habituated to its surroundings even if it wasn't born there, than one that was released just a few days/weeks/months previously.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

If I were to go there in 2021 would I have a decent chance of seeing them?

Yes, Dave, October the 29th north east corner of the island, can't be precise on times or to within hundreds or yards but yeah that's the spot............. but will you be there?? Honestly mate Culver will be elsewhere,bet he goes skyward. But yeah, that's the place to go

Sorry Dave something tickled me in this question, I 'd lay a bet I'm missing something but you have to be smiling by now.

There is a wonderful simplicity to being able to predict where a subject will be in our genre of photography ..........it's everything to a wildlife tog A 2 year call is a big ask,


Jerry I want a pic of their kids not these . Look I'd just love to see one to take /make an image that would be beyond words, but yeah , wild kids, that will do.

Rob, thanks for the link I was sort of blown away by Culver's 220Km in a day.........then I thought barn door wings and a following wind.should we be amazed...I truly am............ but isn't this probably what eagles do?

Bee, I have places I could take folks....folks like me that adore animals and trying their best to make a piccy of one I SO WANT to share,partially to give something back to guys that have never met me but help me try to be a photographer . I can hand on heart put folks in front of a hare which some will never have seen...like me an eagle .Yet I can't do it. It's the hardest of hard things for me. It's my only way to say thank you but I can't go there,because I fear for sharing what I know and endeangering the very animals I love. This isn't about elitism it's protection. It isn't the easiest thing to convey. I see this on my own personal levels and with regard to these eagles : LMAO me trying to convey it doesn't help,

These eagles need time to settle time unharrased by us.......... togs birders anyone. full stop !! They have been pulled from elsewhere and rehomed, they have enough to contend with................... On top of that, although scavenging is an option, they have to be in a physical state to kill,to eat. Stress can knock any bird of beastie ,sideways AND the consequences to an individual especially a predator could be huge .

Don't think of them that might know as elite,just folks trying to do what they see as right for the moment by the eagles. I've laboured this a bit kiddo I'm sorry . They need calm and space and not to be bothered by us humans.

Those that know are being quiet for the eagles.......... not to be better than you or me

 

[Bebop]

No, I'm nowhere near the IoW, am holed up in my retreat in the Welsh hills!

There can't be many better places to be.

@Stuart Philpott Yes I do understand, and I suppose whilst I know that I won't go disturbing them, there are many that will. This is partly why I haven't gone looking for them. I'm hoping I'll see them in due time.

We get hares here too. Love seeing them!

The island is a small place and there are numerous facebook photography and wildlife groups/pages and a lot of good photographers. Once something gets posted, everyone goes out to get the same shots.

 

[Steve Smith]

The article says they were released at a secret location. My initial thought is that it would be at Newtown which is on the other side of the island to me and is a nature reserve with an RSPB bird hide.


Steve.

 

[Box Brownie]

The article says they were released at a secret location. My initial thought is that it would be at Newtown which is on the other side of the island to me and is a nature reserve with an RSPB bird hide.


Steve.

Hmmm! I surmise such "secret location" releases are on land that is not normally accessible by the public.........such as the Great Bustard release in a remote area of Salisbury Plain. Having said that, how much of the IoW is not publicly accessible with sufficient "space" to do that?

 

[Tringa]

Hmmm! I surmise such "secret location" releases are on land that is not normally accessible by the public.........such as the Great Bustard release in a remote area of Salisbury Plain. Having said that, how much of the IoW is not publicly accessible with sufficient "space" to do that?

I too wondered about the amount of quiet space on the IoW for the eagles. It would great to see them but the island, and surrounding areas, seems a bit too populated.

However, one of the main proponents of this reintroduction is Roy Dennis who knows his stuff and in my limited experience of WTEs they appear to be reasonably tolerant of the relative proximity of humans.

Lets hope for the best.

Dave