White-tailed Eagle(s)
None of the WTEs that have been around Somerset have got white tails yet, so must be buzzards. Roy Dennis website will confirm whether any of the tracked birds have been in your area.
I’m really not sure if I saw a pair of WTE today but maybe someone can tell me. I was at DT2 0NN about 2pm when I saw what I thought were Buzzards but they had white tails with no dark bars or stripes. The tail of one bird was fanned to a full 180 leaving no gap between the tail and wings. The wings seemed more Buzzard being not as broad as the WTE I have seen in Scotland. Can anyone confirm if there were WTE in the area at that time?
On 9 March, 2 WTE were seen together near Doulting. It seems that we have had a wild bird in Somerset during the Winter Period. Sightings and tracking seem to support this.
Presumably the last one was at chew yesterday (Monday)
Another three White-tailed Eagles from the Isle of Wight Project passed through the County over the weekend. G408 came up from the south coast on Saturday afternoon towards the Huntspill River before returning south on Sunday. Also on Saturday afternoon another bird, G461, also flew through Somerset but carried on to Devon, this is the bird that was at West Sedge Moor in early March that roosted later that day near Cranmore. Yesterday a female, G466, flew along the coast from North Devon to be over Steart Marshes at 11:00 before leaving in a NE direction over the Mendips, she is now in the SE. Information from the Isle of Wight Reintroduction Project.
White-tailed Eagle flew NW over Larkhill, Yeovil at 14:00
Edit: Todays bird was G461 from the IOW project. Drifted west toward Montacute 15 minutes later according to satellite data.
White-tailed Eagle seen on the Somerset side of the Wiltshire border today, East Woodlands. Something to keep an eye out for on my daily commute.
Ah, 471’s map misses that bit, but 318’s does show last year’s visit.
There have been four different White-tailed Eagles so far this year. G463 was the long staying bird that wintered mainly in the Chard/east end of the Blackdowns area. G471 which had wintered in Devon crossed into Somerset briefly near Dulverton and then returned to the Dartmoor area before moving north a week or so later to near Hawkridge Reservoir where it spent a day before flying off over Steart Marshes and then NE out of the county. G461 was the one that arrived at West Sedgemoor on Monday afternoon again from Devon, where it spent the following morning before flying north to roost near Cranmore. G405 came into Somerset also on Monday from the Wiltshire direction roosted on that evening again near Cranmore before returning in the same direction.
G463, which is now in Norfolk. G405 has been around Longleat, on & off, since 10th Feb & the other night G461 roosted 1 mile from where G405 had the previous night, having come up from Devon (these are all birds released last summer):
https://www.roydennis.org/category/sea-eagle/isle-of-wight-sea-eagles/
Both mentioned are Isle of Wight birds & different to the one that spent winter around chard (which has left). 4th was last spring. Track on link is one JH saw: https://mobile.twitter.com/Southglosbirds/status/1369926459901497349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Abristolbirding&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Favonbirding.blogspot.com%2F
What number is the bird that wintered around chard?
Both mentioned are Isle of Wight birds & different to the one that spent winter around chard (which has left). 4th was last spring. Track on link is one JH saw: https://mobile.twitter.com/Southglosbirds/status/1369926459901497349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Abristolbirding&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Favonbirding.blogspot.com%2F
For those interested the satellite tracks for the eagles winter wandering shave just appeared on the Roy Dennis website. Looks like we have had at least 4 different birds for short periods at least.
Probably, they do tend to stick to same roost once they find one they like. Strangely rarebirdalert had it down as an escapee, whilst another was reported near Glastonbury & ham wall (which is presumably one of the Isle of Wight birds). They could both be the same bird, as birdguides use a padlock symbol for the IoW birds, which may have been misinterpreted by RBA.
White-tailed Eagle seen near Tadhill/Cranmore Tower this morning (on the way to work) and present again this evening. As odd as the question is, was it the same Bird on both occasions?