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| | | SOUNDSCAPE: The White-tailed Sea Eagle
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Go to the Listen Again page | | | | | A fictional 5-part series narrated by Paul Young. | | | |
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This dramatic series follows the lives of three pairs of white-tailed sea eagles as they struggle to survive and raise their chicks in Scotland.
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Programme 4. Thursday 24 February, 15.45-16.00
Summer fades and the swallows depart on their long migration back to Africa.
Autumn is bad news for the sea eagles; the strong winds often make flying difficult and if the birds can't fly they can't hunt.
On the isle of Mull, one pair of sea eagles strike lucky when a gamekeeper, having shot and gralloched a deer, leaves the innards on the forest floor.
Many young sea eagles don't make it through their first winter. Of those that do, only about 10 per cent reach adulthood. Of our sea eagle chicks, one perishes from the cold, whilst another feeds on a deliberately poisoned lamb.
Those birds that do survive do so through skill and opportunism. We join one sea eagle adult out at sea as she pursues an eider duck until it's exhausted and gasping for air, finally becoming easy pickings for the sea eagle.
We follow the antics of another sea eagle as it steals a fish from an unsuspecting otter, whilst on the isle of Mull a fishing boat returns to the harbour at Tobermory, bearing a cargo of fish that proves a tempting feast for our young bird.
Programme Pages:
Soundscape home page
Episode 1: 21 February- More information >>>
Episode 2: 22 February- More information >>>
Episode 3: 23 February- More information >>>
Episode 4: 24 February- More information >>>
Episode 5: 25 February- More information >>>
See also:
Soundscape: The Swallow’s Journey
Soundscape: A Grey Seal Odyssey
Soundscape: A Serengeti March
Soundscape: The Pond
 Listen again to Programme 4 | | |
RELATED LINKS | | | For further information about white tailed sea eagles and where to see them in Britain:
The Forestry Commission - White-tailed Sea Eagle
BBC Nature - Return of the white-tailed eagle
Basic Facts about Sea Eagles:
BBC Nature - Wildfacts
The Hawk Conservancy Trust
RSPB have a webcam to watch sea eagles >>>
Suggested Further Reading:
The Return of the Sea Eagle
by John A. Love
Published by Cambridge University Press 1983
ISBN 0 521 25513 9
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