Northern Ireland Bird News Tuesday 11 March

[Jabberwocky]

A 2nd or 3rd year Golden Eagle was on the Antrim Plateau at Slieveanee. It had a yellowish tag on the left wing.

A female Goosander was on the Shimna River at Ivy Bridge, Tollymore Forest, Co Down, this morning. (Ron Price).

A Little Egret was at Dundrum Inner Bay south. (Philip McErlean).

A high count of 244 Red-breasted Merganser were at the north end of Strangford Lough seen from he sea wall at Patton's Marsh. (Chris Murphy).

An Otter in the sea off Bloody Bridge near Newcastle was an unusual site. (Ian Jackson).

At Strangford Lough a Black-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, 8 Slavonian Grebe and Greenshank were at Greyabbey Bay South (George Gordon).
[quote][/quote]

[roger dickey]

Interesting news of the Golden Eagle. Tony Crease, Brian Etheridge and I were talking of the assurance that the Scottish raptor group have that there will be no further Goldies in England. It appears that with only two pairs left in 'Galloway' the distance for a breeding pair to travel is now too great.
Speculation as to where this one was from?

[Jabberwocky]

Roger, not that I'm aware & there doesn't appear to have been any wing tags. I'll check with Jim Well of the NI Raptor Study Group & get back to you.

[Jabberwocky]

Almost certainly from Donegal. There is a release scheme there run by the Golden Eagle Trust.

We have been able to read darvic rings and/or wing tags on some of the Golden Eagles seen in Northern Ireland and all of these were birds wandering from Donegal.

[roger dickey]

Many thanks. I'll have to keep up to date on the Donegal project.