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Sea Eagles have no right to land in Suffolk (1 Viewer)

She does make the distinction between vagrants/winterers and an introduction, to be fair. Although, to be fair to the other side, there is a fair bit of circumstantial (though quite debateable) evidence that they are native to the area at some point in time.

But she does have a point in highlighting this obsession with reintroductions for their own sake, and rightly questions the motives. There has been very little debate about them, and the experiecne from Scotland suggests that this will be a huge money pit and tie up resources for more than half a century for quite small returns. I don't think it's out of order for the public to question this, as it's their money.
 
Irrespective of my opinion on this, I think RSPB/NE's point is that WT Eagles were undoubtedly native to some areas of lowland England previously, especially when the large wetlands of the Fens etc were still intact. They are being frequently being misquoted by saying they used to live in Suffolk when indeed this is almost impossible to prove either way.
 
Jono L said:
Irrespective of my opinion on this, I think RSPB/NE's point is that WT Eagles were undoubtedly native to some areas of lowland England previously, especially when the large wetlands of the Fens etc were still intact. They are being frequently being misquoted by saying they used to live in Suffolk when indeed this is almost impossible to prove either way.
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It depends what you mean by 'native'. That they were a regular part of our avifauna in ancient (and not so ancient) times is beyond doubt. However, bones dug up at archaeological sites (and evidently they're quite distinctive) don't distinguish between breeding birds and winter/passage birds. Given the habitat available the probabilities, though, seem to tip in favour of them breeding here,
 
"public-spirited landowners who have not turned it into prairieland"

:-O

The reason much of it is grassland is due to the ESA where farmers got paid for it to be grassland. A lot of it did resemble prarie before then.

I really can't decide how I feel about white-tailed eagles being introduced into Suffolk but I'm more pro it after reading this article.

This obsession with reintroductions doesn't really seem to be the best use of money.

Someone high up in EN (as it was then) once said to me 'the best thing we could do with our budget is to spend it on conservation abroad' . Obviously it could never happen. But conservation bodies in lots of other countries must see how much we spend on certain projects and weep with envy.
 
I will add that in my time in conservation I did meet some extremely nice landowners who were genuinely public spirited, knowledgable about wildlife and very keen to conserve it. But not many.
 
Just to add to the posts, just read an excerpt from book called the Catalogue of the Birds of Suffolk by Churchill Babbington and it shows quite a number of birds shot right through the 1800(you would be astonished how many where shot). if anyone wants to read passages from it will post the link, only reason not doing already as not sure about validity of doing so, but nearly sure be ok as not in copyright. Anyone interested just say yes
 
dunedin said:
Just to add to the posts, just read an excerpt from book called the Catalogue of the Birds of Suffolk by Churchill Babbington and it shows quite a number of birds shot right through the 1800(you would be astonished how many where shot). if anyone wants to read passages from it will post the link, only reason not doing already as not sure about validity of doing so, but nearly sure be ok as not in copyright. Anyone interested just say yes
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yes

and as you say it's too old to be in copyright
 
Steve Babbs said:
I really can't decide how I feel about white-tailed eagles being introduced into Suffolk but I'm more pro it after reading this article.
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Like many birders I too have some misgivings about this project, but now that I know (from the article) that Robin Page is strongly "anti" it I think it's a wonderful idea!
 
From my limited knowledge of Robin Page he appears very pro predator control. Maybe its simply that the re-introduction of a large predatory species goes completely against his vision for the countryside? Just google him and you'll get a pretty good idea of his views.

duncan fraser said:
Don't know much about the CRT and Robin Page - what's the real reason they're against this project?
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Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation - basically an organisation that receives funding from the government but is largely independent from the government. We've got lots of them here - probably more quangos than there are pairs of white-tailed eagles!

marie_D said:
Please excuse the ignorance of a poor Yankee Anglophile ...
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marie_D said:
Please excuse the ignorance of a poor Yankee Anglophile ...
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I know the feeling as an online watcher of various American shows (Ken Olberman makes me laugh out loud) I keep wondering what things like 'ACORN' are.

"Quango" stands for "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations". That is to say they're generally funded by the tax payer to provide advice and expertise (?) to the government who can deny any responsibility for or ignore what they say. They run various organisations with a remit running from the care of national parks to research about drug dependency,
 
Acorn

John Cantelo said:
I know the feeling as an online watcher of various American shows (Ken Olberman makes me laugh out loud) I keep wondering what things like 'ACORN' are.
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Thanks for all the responses to my question! I looked up ACORN as I wasn't sure what it is myself.

Here's the Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now

Any organization that tries to get marginalized, de facto desenfranchised people to vote will automatically collect votes for the Democratic Party. The more votes from traditional non-voters (young, minorities, poor), the more likely a Democratic party candidate to win. This is, of course, quite "controversial"in the eyes of right-wing Republicans.

Now back to sea eagles!
 
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