Lovebirds nesting in Mountshannon

TWO white-tailed sea eagles, which are native to this country but have been absent for more than 100 years, are giving true meaning to the phrase lovebirds, having traversed a distance of 160km only to find and fall for each other in Mountshannon.
The lovebirds were released separately from Killarney National Park, Kerry, in 2008 and in 2009 as part of the white-tailed sea eagle reintroduction project.
It has created a stir for project manager Dr Allan Mee that the two eagles have found one another, as it is hoped their pairing will lead to the first breeding of this species in the country in 110 years.
The white-tailed sea eagle is the fourth largest eagle in the world with a wing span of approximately seven to eight feet. The species can live up to 30 years.
Following a number of sightings in East Clare earlier this year, the couple have been confirmed to be nesting in the vicinity of Mountshannon, most probably on islands in that area of Lough Derg. It is now hoped that in the coming two years, the pair will add to their love nest by creating a family, thereby securing the continuation of their species in Ireland.
Speaking about the pairing of the currently unnamed eagles, Dr Mee said they were spotted in the East Clare area around March and April and confirmed sightings were made by him in May of this year.
“The male eagle, identifiable by a red tag on its left wing and a white tag on its right, was released in 2008, while the female eagle was released in 2009 and has a green tag on its left wing and a white tag on its right wing. We sourced them in Norway, where they have approximately 3,000 pairs, so we got a licence to take new birds from the wild there and we then kept them in Kerry for five to six weeks and then we released them.
“These two have found each other and are fancying the Lough Derg area of Clare and we had no idea that they were potentially a pair. That is the whole goal. They take five years to breed so the hope would be that somewhere down the line, after releasing them, they would start to pair. We are waiting for our first breeding in the wild so hopefully this will happen in the next year or two. We have two other pairs currently, both are in South Kerry but it is great news that we have a pair outside Kerry and hopefully, all going well, they will breed in the next year,” he explained.
He said the white-tailed sea eagle is a tourist attraction in Norway and Scotland, where they have also settled and could lead to an increase in visitors to the area if they make Mountshannon their permanent home.
“There are a number on the Isle of Mull, off the coast of Scotland, where the sea eagles are the big attraction, with half of the tourists coming there to see them. What would happen is fishermen will take tourists out on boats and they would throw fish overboard and the eagles come down and catch them close to the boat,” he said.

The sea eagle is really a coastal bird, he explained but the attraction with Lough Derg is most probably due to its forested areas and the good fish population, as well as the islands where they would be relatively undisturbed.
He explained that while the eagles do feed on fish, they would generally only be feeding on one to two a day and would not present a risk to the fishing stock. Dr Mee said he had been in consultation with Inland Fisheries Ireland when introducing this project and they had been more than happy with the proposal.
Since the reintroduction project started, 100 eagles have been released into the wild in the hopes they will survive and breed. However, 19 of the birds have been found dead, Dr Mee revealed.
“This is why we need to release so many. The biggest threat is poisoning, whereby poison might be put out in farming areas for foxes and crows. It should be pointed out that those poisons are now illegal and that even though the poisons are targeting foxes, it could kill other animals, such as the sea eagle,” he said.
Locally, concern was also expressed by the local angling club of the vulnerability of the birds to shooting with the opening of the season on September 1.
Dr Mee asked people to be mindful of the eagles’ presence to help these protected birds survive, as they are important to the future of the project.
Anyone with an eagle eye, who spots the two lovebirds in Clare is asked to report their sighting by logging onto www.goldeneagle.ie.