By Lucy Morgan Audience and Content Editor
G471, one of the White-tailed Eagles released on the Isle of Wight in 2020, spent several days at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire during March (photo by Ian Dawson) The people behind the release of white-tailed eagles on the Isle of Wight are to expand their project to Norfolk. Government conservation agency Natural England has awarded a licence to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, working with East Anglia s rewilding project Wild Ken Hill. Up to 60 juvenile birds will be released, over 10 years, at the site in west Norfolk. It comes after the successful Isle of Wight scheme, run by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England.
Norfolk farmers rightly worried as eagles set to be released
11 May 2021 |
The Natural England licence will allow up to 60 birds to be released over a 10-year period
Farming groups have criticised Natural England s approval for 60 white-tailed eagles to be reintroduced in an area of Norfolk known for its pig and poultry production.
The eagles, the UK s largest bird of prey, will be released over a 10-year period on the Ken Hill estate, west Norfolk, which is operating an ‘early-stage lowland rewilding project’.
The juvenile birds will be sourced from Poland, where there are around 1,000 pairs of white-tailed eagles.
Natural England issued the licence of approval to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, whose project will start from next year.
60 rare flying barndoor eagles to be released in Norfolk
The huge birds of prey became extinct in Britain before reintroduction efforts started
Natural England has given the go-ahead for up to 60 white-tailed eagles to be released into the wild in Norfolk (Image: Ainsley Bennett/PA Wire)
Sign up to our newsletter for daily updates and breaking newsInvalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Sign up here!
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Your information will be used in accordance with ourPrivacy Notice.
Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice
A new bid is being launched to reintroduce the white-tailed se eagle to Norfolk
- Credit: Ainsley Bennett
Plans to reintroduce eagles to the Norfolk coast have been given the go-ahead.
Natural England has agreed conservationists can release 60 young birds at Wild Ken Hill, between King s Lynn and Hunstanton, over the next decade in the hope of establishing a breeding population in the region.
Eagles were persecuted to extinction in England by the early 19th Century.
In recent years, the species has been reintroduced to Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Wight, from where young birds released by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation have ranged as far as Norfolk, visiting locations in the west and north of the county including Heacham and Holkham.