Twentieth

The 25 year old Osprey has returned to her breeding ground at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s (SWT) Loch of the Lowes wildlife reserve for the 20^th year in a row wildlife watchers at the reserve have confirmed that she is sitting on a single egg, her first of the season.

Wonder of Nature

Described as a “wonder of nature” this female has lived far beyond an average life expectancy of 8 years for this species and has produced 46 chicks that have successfully fledged, more than double the usual 20.

Confused

Being such a veteran of chick-rearing has come in useful in training up her new younger mate who initially seemed “a bit confused” about the role he is to play. The female has been seem to regularly admonish her mate by calling out repeatedly in a bid to ensure the male provides ideal living conditions for her and her chick as he carries out the necessary osprey male duties of providing the female with food and maintaining the upkeep of the nest.

From Extinction

The Osprey was nearly driven to extinction by 1916 and Emma Rawling, the SWT Perthshire ranger appointed to protect the osprey during the breeding season, said that conservationists at the reserve where “jumping for joy” at the news that the 47^th chick is on its way.

Mates

Bonding between the male and female is going well however there is a possibility that her original mate, the reserves resident male may return and battle to retain his position and take back his mate. Each year ospreys migrate from Africa, where they spend the winter months, to breed to the UK in March and April. Sadly as time passes it becomes increasingly likely that the resident male has not survived the 3000 mile trip.

Monitoring

The SWT is currently raising money for a satellite tag for at least one osprey so they can monitor its journey to and from Africa, as little is known about what they go through once they leave the reserve. There are currently 150 osprey breeding pair in the UK, the majority of which live in Scotland.

A lone male snowy owl has been spotted each of the last seven years wandering the islands of Scotland in search of a mate.

His quest has taken him all around the islands, including visits to North Uist, Lewis, Harris and even remote St Kilda, but sadly all to no avail.

From his plumage and visits, local RSPB Scotland staff can ascertain he is the same bird and has been without a mate for years now.

He was identified as male when his white feathers lost some of the black flecking more commonly recorded in younger snowy owls.

Hopes were raised in 2008 when the bird was joined by another wandering snowy owl, but dreams of a happy ending were dashed when it emerged it too was male.

With minimal human disturbance, the Western Isles would be an ideal site for the birds to breed as they have a plentiful supply of rabbits and lots of open moorland and rocky landscapes.

Snowy owls are more often found in north America or northern Europe, but occasionally some wandering birds find their way to our shores.

But no snowy owl has bred in Britain since 1975. There have been similar sporadic sightings in the past, ironically in 1976 it was the male snowy owls that failed to show up and again in 1993 two females summered on the island of Fetlar but no male joined them.

RSPB Scotland conservation officer Martin Scott hopes that eventually the old adage will hold true and that good things do come to those who wait:

“With lying snow, he has gone unreported for a couple of months, but is now back visiting his old haunts. We are monitoring his movements but, in reality, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that he will find another wandering bird, and this time it will be female.”

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A £100,000 feasibility study has now been published that identified four barrage, two lagoon and three tidal reef options. However, development is unlikely to be forthcoming in the near future, as none of the options were rated as having the “best available level of feasibility” in technical, financial or environmental assessments.

But Peter Robertson, the RSPB’s conservation manager for northern England, remains concerned that the area was even being considered for development, as it is a key habitat for many species of wildlife.

In particular he warned of potential impacts on barnacle geese, the entire population of which he claimed winter in the Solway Firth, if the wide, flat mud sediment was disturbed. Whooper swans, pink-footed geese and oyster catchers could also be affected.

120,000 waterbirds that visit the estuary each winter and it remains one of the few habitats that has seemingly remained undisturbed by development.

“The habitat of inter-tidal mudflats and salt marshes is about the closest you’d get in this country to a pristine habitat – and it supports a very large number of birds, as it produces the food the birds need over the winter,” Mr Robertson said.

Mr Robertson said he was not convinced that any currently available options for the Solway Firth could be deployed without damaging the environment. The RSPB recently raised similar concerns over the proposed Severn Barrage, and the organisation is becoming increasingly frustrated with the government’s focus on tidal energy.

“It’s premature to start funding feasibility studies – public money shouldn’t have been spent on an outcome that could have been guessed beforehand. Instead, let’s spend the next few years investing in technology that we can use in estuaries.”

He called for money to be spent on developing technologies that might make it possible to develop renewable energy without impacting on the environment of the estuary, including options other than tidal energy.

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Known as ‘the Grand Old Lady of the Loch’, the bird is 25 years old, an age more than three times the average lifespan of an osprey.

With the completion of another gruelling 3,000-mile migration from her wintering grounds in West Africa to her summer breeding territory at Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire, she has now travelled a total distance equivalent to around halfway to the moon.

The Grand Old Lady of the Loch was spotted landing on her usual tree-top nesting site, known as an eyrie, at 2pm on Tuesday. It is expected that her regular breeding partner, a male osprey identified with a green leg ring, will arrive within a week. He will then chase away any other interloping males before initiating the breeding process.

Emma Rawling, Perthshire ranger of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, explained her amazement at once again seeing the bird, but damped expectations of whether the osprey could add to the 46 chicks that she has bred:

“We are truly amazed at the tenacity and endurance of this particular female osprey. However, as a very old bird, her fertility is now in doubt. We will be watching the nest with bated breath to see if our female can hatch any chicks again this year.”

Once the first egg is laid, Scottish Wildlife Trust staff, aided by nearly 70 volunteers, will stage a round-the-clock watch to safeguard the ospreys and their eggs from threats including thieves and poachers who steal unhatched eggs for private collections.

Using a camera hidden in the bird’s nest, live footage of the events within will be aired over the course of the season, both in the Loch of the Lowes visitor centre, near Dunkeld on Tayside, and on the Scottish Wildlife Trust website.

“More than 20,000 visitors come to Loch of the Lowes each year to enjoy watching the osprey, and our high definition nest camera makes viewing the action a far more exciting and intimate experience,” said Peter Ferns, the visitor centre manager.

The Grand Old Lady of the Loch may have given wildlife experts a shock with her appearance this year, but it was not so long ago that the sight of any breeding ospreys would have been a cause for celebration.

Ospreys’ lives are often cut short by the numerous hazards that they face on their long migrations to and from West Africa and persecution in the first half of the 20th Century forced them to the brink of extinction.

However, successful protection and breeding programmes saw their numbers experience an upturn in the 1950s, and now there are an estimated 200 breeding pairs in Scotland, with the birds also recently having recolonised England and Wales.

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The UK Government has committed to putting a network of MCZs in place by 2012. In England, the job of identifying areas of sea to be designated falls to regional panels, which will make their decisions based on guidance from Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

This guidance has just been published and lists those species and habitats that should be taken into account when identifying MCZs and no seabirds are in the published lists.

This means that while other wildlife and their habitats will be protected by law, the waters used by hundreds of thousands of birds will remain at risk from damage and exploitation.

Kate Tanner, Marine Policy Officer at the RSPB, said: “This decision seems utterly incredible. We were delighted when the Marine Act became law last year after more than a decade of campaigning by the RSPB and other conservation organisations.”

“It seemed our seas and the wildlife they support would finally get legal protection from a network of new Marine Conservation Zones. To find out seabirds will not be properly protected will come as a huge blow to our many members who campaigned so hard in the belief that birds would benefit.”

While most of the UK’s seabird colonies on land enjoy legal protection, there is no such protection for the waters adjacent to the colonies, where the birds bathe and preen to maintain condition.

The birds’ feeding grounds further out to sea are also currently unprotected and it is areas such as this where seabirds are particularly vulnerable to bycatch, in which they are accidentally caught and killed as a result of human fishing activity.

The RSPB has produced a map of sites believed to be vital to nationally important seabird colonies.

Any future network of sites protected by European law would not cover these areas, something which Kate Tanner believes the government have been unaware of:

“The Government seems to think our seabirds will be covered by the European network of Special Protection Areas. Well, there are two big problems with that. First, we don’t have a network of marine SPAs in the UK. We were meant to have a complete network of them back in 1981. Almost 30 years later we have just one, with plans for two more announced last year.

“Second, even if we get a proper network of marine SPAs, they will only offer protection to waters used by internationally important numbers of seabirds or which support internationally important seabird colonies.”

Tanner felt that overlooking seabirds in the MCZs undermines their whole purpose, as it leaves a gaping hole in the UK’s conservation measures that could have been easily achieved by merely including them in this new protection scheme.

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The Scottish environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, said that 27 protected birds of prey were proven to have been poisoned last year, including two golden eagles, 19 buzzards and four red kites, in 22 separate incidents.

These figures are made particularly disappointing as it appeared that progress had been made in 2008 when 16 poisoning cases were detected. However, these latest numbers mark a return to the high level recorded in 2007, when 27 birds of prey were also poisoned, and close to the record figure of 34 in 2006.

Cunningham explained that the issue is receiving unprecedented attention: “The protection of Scotland’s wildlife has never before occupied such a prominent position politically or in terms of the law. I am hugely grateful to those partners working together to tackle these appalling crimes and I hope that our joint efforts will result in a safer environment for our birds of prey.”

But there is a strong opinion that still not enough is actually being done to tackle the problem.

Elaine Murray, Labour’s environment spokeswoman in the Scottish parliament, said: “In order to tackle poisonings, we have called for estates to be named and shamed where foul play is involved. The former [environment] minister Mike Russell pledged to get tough on wildlife crime but we’ve seen precious little action from the SNP. These figures today show it is time for robust action not just warm words.”

Sporting estates and grouse moors are widely blamed for the problem, where birds of prey are seen by game managers as a threat to grouse, pheasant and partridge stocks. The new figures showed that since 2005, 121 birds of prey had been poisoned, a statistic which does not include trapping, shooting, nest disturbance and undetected incidents.

Duncan Orr-Ewing, head of species at RSPB Scotland, is calling for the promises to crack down on the illegal activity to be followed through: “We ask the authorities to deploy the full range of sanctions against the perpetrators of this indiscriminate activity.”

The charity is also worried that the full extent of the problem has not yet been revealed: “Experience tells us that [these figures] represent just a fraction of the true scale of this illegal activity, which persist with shocking regularity in some areas of Scotland.”

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The conservation group is part of 13 organizations backing the legal challenge against the expansion. The coalition includes leading groups such as Greenpeace, RSPB and CPRE, as well as residents’ groups combining to form a force of approximately two million people.

WWF claims that if the third runway is built the airport will become the single largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the UK, and would destroy all 700 homes in the nearby village of Sipson.

The coalition is fighting the project on the legal basis that the runway consultation process was fundamentally flawed and that construction of a third runway goes against the UK’s climate change targets.

Additionally, the coalition is working with Transport for London arguing that the government has no proof to support its claim that there will be enough public transportation to cope with a Heathrow expansion.

The decision to proceed with a third runway was made by former Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon in 2009, but WWF is arguing that the most recent proposal is vastly different than the one that was initially proposed to the public in 2007.

The coalition argues that the newly proposed measures are fundamentally flawed. For example, the government has vowed to bring aviation carbon emissions down to 2005 levels by 2050 but the Committee on Climate Change says the government would have to severely alter the expansion plans in order to achieve that goal.

Additionally, the government has suggested operating the runway at half capacity until 2020 to determine if noise, air pollution and carbon targets could be met. But the coalition says not only will imposing such a limit destroy the government’s economic case for expansion, but the village of Sipson will still be demolished as well.

Pete Lockley, head of transport policy for the WWF, says the government is in serious need of a “complete rethink” of its aviation policy.

“The government’s decision to allow expansion at Heathrow flies in the face of common sense, which is why we’re asking the high court to consider the case,” he said. “A third runway will make it much more difficult to achieve our carbon reduction targets, and doesn’t justify its cost in economic or environmental terms.”

If the coalition is successful in its legal endeavours the government’s decision to allow the third runway will ultimately be overturned.

By Taylor Turner

They disappeared from the Scottish mainland in the early 1980s, with numbers dropping to an all-time low in 2008 of just 17 breeding pairs in the Western Isles and Shetland

It is unknown why they have suffered such serious declines. However, predation by foxes and hedgehogs, theft of their eggs by collectors, lack of suitable habitat and climate change are thought to have played a part.

But last year they showed the first signs of recovery and rose to 26 pairs.

Their demise in recent years is particularly sad as they are particularly unique birds, fascinating even experts in ornithology.

The birds have inverted gender roles compared to that found in most of nature.

The females display bright colours in the competition to find a mate, compete for nesting territory and will aggressively defend their nests and mates. Once they have laid their eggs, they will abandon the male to look after the brood, while they search for another mate. Sometimes they spend just two days with each male.

While the females hunt for mates, the smaller, duller-coloured males stay on the nest guarding eggs.

James Reynolds, spokesman for RSPB Scotland, said they were “fascinating little birds”.

“The really interesting thing is how their sexual behaviour completely goes against traditional gender stereotypes, with the females behaving like the equivalent of the modern-day, liberated ‘laddette’.”

“It is a more extreme, avian version of the sexual revolution that we saw in the 1960s.”

Malcolm Smith, RSPB Scotland North Isles Officer, said he was delighted by the rise in pairs, but would not allow their efforts in providing hope for the near-extinct bird to lead to complacency: “Unfortunately numbers are still below our targets and there is no guarantee we will be able to repeat this success next year.”

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They are currently consulting with landowners and farmers over the scheme, as there is expected to be some opposition to the plans.

Critics of the proposal argue that there is no firm proof they were in East Anglia in the first place and question the merit of introducing them now into an intensively farmed part of the UK, with fears that farmer’s livelihoods could be put under threat if the birds become established.

The conservationists have indicated a willingness to compensate any landowners adversely affected by the proposed re-introduction of the bird of prey to England following a gap of more than 200 years.

Jimmy Butler, a free range pig farmer, is more sceptical: “I think they are living in a fool’s paradise, I really do,” he says. “If my pig litter mortality rate goes up two or three per cent how do I prove it’s the eagles that did it?”

This is a sentiment shared by many other landowners who fear that their livestock will be spooked or preyed upon by the birds.

Nicola Currie, Country Land and Business Association (CLA) eastern region director, believes that the large sums it will cost to introduce the birds could be far better spent.

She points to a 500,000 Euro project about to start elsewhere in Suffolk to improve the habitat by creating coastal lagoons and marshes for the many rare birds who arrive there

“It’s great we are spending that sort of money on our waders and all the rest of it, but then we are spending a little bit more on something that’s going to eat them,” she says.

Natural England and the RSPB believes that there would be negligible harm to livestock, if at all, and that the county could benefit greatly overall from the introduction of such an iconic bird.

As well as possible mitigation or financial compensation for farmers, the conservationists believe they have another potent argument in favour of the scheme, beyond conserving a threatened species. Tapping the Suffolk coast’s tourism potential, particularly in the “shoulder” or less popular months, is seen as important to an economy which increasingly relies on tourists and visitors to sustain it.

“It becomes a very popular tourist attraction when people see these birds,” says Mr Macklin.

“They are pretty big and they are quite spectacular as well.”

Mr McNiven points to the reaction of tourism chiefs when the Suffolk Coast and Health Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty partnership met in December 2009 to discuss the proposal.

“Representatives from the tourism sector at that meeting said that whilst some hotels in East Suffolk are full at peak times, there were 22 million people within two hours’ drive and the aim was to get them to stay longer,” he says.

“They described the project as ‘iconic’ and ‘wonderful’…a marketing man’s dream’. These views reflect the sentiments of business owners who attended one of the project’s drop-in days in June 2007 and expressed enthusiasm for more year-round business.”

Mr Macklin points out that on Mull, the arrival of the sea eagle is estimated to bolster the economy to the tune of about £2million.

The consultations, ongoing since 2007 with focus groups, drop-ins and face-to-face meetings on the Suffolk coast for stakeholders and members of the public, continue until the summer.

Natural England says it is sure that there would be many benefits to landowners with tourism-related businesses such as bed and breakfasts and farm shops if the project goes ahead.

“I think most of the population sees the benefits it brings to the local community,” says Mr Macklin.

“I hope we can bring people round. I’ll be honest, I think there are people we’ll never bring round.”

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Malta lies on one of the key bird-migration routes linking Europe and Africa and has faced escalating public scrutiny as the extent of the devastation to its birds has been uncovered.

An analysis by BirdLife Malta, the RSPB’s partner in the islands, has shown that, over the last three years at least 79 species of bird have been shot illegally. This includes 17 species of birds of prey, which is just under half the total nesting in continental Europe.

Dr Tim Stowe, the RSPB’s international director, said: “The Maltese government has shown little interest in upholding the letter or the spirit of the EU Birds Directive, which was created to protect wild birds and which conservationists fought so hard to secure many years ago.”

There are concerns that things could get even worse if the island’s government accedes to Maltese hunters’ request to permit the spring shooting of quail and turtle dove. This has previously been allowed, but if the authorities sanctioned it this spring it would be in defiance of international bird protection laws, the European Court of Justice and public opinion across Malta, Europe and the European Commission.

The RSPB, BirdLife International and BirdLife have all come out in opposition to this proposal amid fears that this would not just lead to a big increase in the deaths of quail and turtle doves but greater collateral damage to other species. It is believed the permitted hunting could be used as a smokescreen for illegal hunters targeting other birds.

The RSPB’s petition will be delivered as part of a wider international push ahead of millions of birds passing through the Mediterranean en route to Europe.

Stowe commented: “The RSPB and our partners within BirdLife International are determined the advances we have made will not be reversed. We cannot just sit back and allow this to happen.”

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WWF-UK has released a report that claims that the UK could slash National Debt by £12 billion over the next four years if the country commits to low carbon adjustments.

Cutting Back on Carbon Spending was published in conjunction with Greenpeace and the RSPB and identifies cuts in road expansions and the abolishment of tax allowances for high carbon companies as two key ways to cut down on emissions and lower National Debt.

The report aims to prove that low carbon doesn’t necessarily mean big spending and calls on the next elected political party to investigate public expenditure and tax policy in relation to commitments to a low carbon economy.

Examples cited in the report include:

• reducing public sector energy and fuel consumption could save the nation £1.5 billion;
• a two-year moratorium on road expansion could save £2.4 billion;
• £2.8 billion to be saved by changes to the road budget;
• an end to zero-rated VAT for aircrafts and ships (£2.2 billion).

Such green measures could reduce spending by £7 billion over four years and increase tax revenues by £5 billions, creating a total savings of £12 billion.

David Norman, head of campaigns for WWF-UK, said that report: “demonstrates that with a clear vision and sense of purpose the UK can move toward a low carbon economy without profligate spending. Not to do so would cost us too much in the long run.”

Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, said: “We’ve got to stop handing out millions in tax breaks to the airline industry and approving roads instead of cleaner alternatives.”

“Britain can be a world leader in renewable technologies and low carbon transport, but only if we stop bailing out the dirty industries of the 20th century.”

By Taylor Turner

WWF CAMPAIGNS TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE – BECOME A MEMBER TODAY

Dr Sean Christian, head of conservation for the RSPB, says the organization is “impressed and inspired” by the overwhelmingly positive response to the campaign.

Up until the 1990s, many bird of prey species were on the verge of extinction in the UK due to persecution and poisoning from pesticides.

However, the last 20 years has seen a remarkable turnaround thanks to a combination of increased legal protection and the work of the RSPB and other conservation bodies.

But illegal activity such as the shooting of wild birds, intentional nest destruction and egg stealing remains a very serious threat to the future of the birds.

More than 200 birds of prey including buzzards, peregrine falcons and red kites were shot, poisoned or trapped in 2008.

The RSPB is calling for a review of the way wildlife crimes in both England and Wales are handled and full legal protection for birds of prey in order to prevent illegal killing.

Dr Christian says the positive momentum of the campaign shows that most citizens in the area are backing the petition to protect the birds.

“Like us [RSPB] they are rightly appalled that birds of prey continue to be killed in our countryside,” he said.

By Taylor Turner

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The Chagos Environment Network (CEN) is campaigning to protect the biodiversity of the archipelago and surrounding waters alongside a Foreign and Commonwealth Office consultation. This week the 10,000^th person signed up in support of the campaign.

The group of 55 tropical islands, part of the British Indian Ocean territory, covers over half a million square kilometres and is home to the world’s largest coral atoll.

“If Gordon Brown declares the Chagos archipelago a marine protected area it will be one of the biggest conservation breakthroughs for 100 years,” said Rachel Jones, the deputy team leader of ZSL London zoo’s aquarium.

Chagos waters are the world’s cleanest due to minimal human influence and house at least 220 coral species and more than 1,000 species of fish. The deep trenches, oceanic ridges and sea mounts are a refuge and breeding ground for large and important populations of vulnerable species such as sharks, dolphins, marine turtles, rare crabs, and birds.

“If done in the right way, the Chagos protected area could be as important as the reserves which protect the Galapagos islands and Great Barrier Reef. Indeed, it would protect one of the world’s most resilient coral reefs and some of the finest coral habitats remaining in the Indian Ocean,” said Tony Juniper, Green Party candidate and campaigner.

By Dan Sumner

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Representatives of the two organisations will argue for an environmental focus to the CAP when they travel to Brussels to lobby for changes. Both argue the focus should move from food to biodiversity and sustainability.

They say that the process of rewarding farmers for their stewardship of the countryside, rather than what they produce,  needs to be “accelerated and widened”. They argue this will deliver a farm system that is more viable and sustainable, providing both food and environmental benefits.

Head of agriculture policy at RSPB, Gareth Morgan, said that without the campaign farmers could miss out on vital funds. The European budget for the CAP is already facing huge pressures.

The joint statement was hailed by the BBC’s rural affairs correspondent, Jeremy Cooke, as a groundbreaking move.

By Dan Sumner

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The RSPB has joined a coalition of environmental charities and campaigning groups to fight the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport which it says will lead to a significant increase in carbon emissions and contribute to climate change.

The centre-piece of the protest will be a fortress built on a area of land which is within the planned perimeter of Heathrow’s third runway.

Last year, a coalition – including the RSPB, Greenpeace, the Woodland Trust, and World Development Movement – purchased an acre of land in the designated area near Sipson village and gave ownership to 60, 000 ordinary people in an effort to stall the legal process involved in the airport expansion.

The £7 billion runway project has been given the green light by the government and is due to be built in 2015, although strong opposition toward the plan is coming from opposition parties.

The campaign coalition is asking for design submissions for an “impenetrable fortress” to be built as soon as possible.

The designs will be judged by a panel including sculptor Rachel Whiteread, engineer Professor Neil Thomas and comedian Alistair McGowan.

John Sauven of Greenpeace, prepared the ground for a battle: “If the bulldozers roll they will face a fortress occupied by a massive movement of ordinary people who oppose Heathrow expansion.”

The Department of Transport is standing by the decision made last January to go ahead with the project. Former transport secretary Geoff Hoon said the third runway would create an additional 60, 000 jobs for UK citizens and ensure that Britain remains a key player in the world business market.

But the RSPB, Greenpeace, councils, citizens and various other environmental groups maintain that the construction of a third runway will damage wildlife in the area and increase pollution and congestion.

By Taylor Turner

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RSPB Scotland is said to be furious that police in Tayside failed to follow up a series of bird of prey poisonings.

The UK’s largest wildlife charity attacked Tayside Police after it took five months to issue an appeal for witnesses to the latest incident in which a white-tailed sea eagle was found to have died from the illegal pesticide carbofurin.

A press release was only sent out by the force after questions were asked by The Scotsman newspaper.

The bird of prey, which had been brought to Scotland from Norway as part of a reintroduction programme, was found on the Glenogil Estate, owned by the multimillionaire co-founder of Artemis Investment Management John Dodd.

“There has been no rapid follow-up search under warrant,” said an RSPB spokesman.

He added that there had been “no look for further evidence” in this or other instances of alleged wildlife crime on or near the Glenogil Estate.

“The RSPB wishes to see all such cases followed up vigorously using the full force of the law.”

A spokeswoman for Tayside Police responded by saying that the case hadn’t previously been made public “to allow time for police inquiries to be carried out without the information being in the public domain.”

She added that they had to “work within the framework of the law” and urged the RSPB to contact them for further explanation of the required legal processes.

RSPB Scotland has been critical of the Scottish Government, arguing that a series of plans to step up efforts to tackle wildlife crime following a 2008 review – including a dedicated wildlife crime officer for each force – had not been implemented.

By Dan Sumner

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The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is celebrating a revival in the fortunes of the majestic white-tailed eagle, which is thriving once again on the Isle of Mull where ten chicks fledged from seven nests in 2009.

There are now 20 of the eagles – sometimes called “flying barn doors” because of their size – on the Scottish island, attracting numerous tourists and generating £2 million a year for the local economy.

According to the RSPB, there were 200 breeding pairs in the UK in the 1700s, before the species suffered local extinction due to persecution.

White-tailed Eagles, also known as sea eagles, were first reintroduced to the nearby Isle of Rum in the late 1970s, before making their way over to the Isle of Mull in 1983.

Two years later, the colony experienced its first successful fledglings.

A previous attempt to reintroduce the birds into Scotland in 1968 was unsuccessful, but the species have been successfully reproducing since a second attempt in 1975, and the birds have since been reintroduced to eastern Scotland as well.

Across Scotland, a total of 46 pairs of white tailed eagles managed to successfully rear 36 chicks this past year.

But the idea of reintroducing the bird to East Anglia has been met with some resistance due to their predatory nature.

A typical diet for the white tailed eagle consists of fish, sea birds, ducks and carrion, but farmers say the birds also target lambs.

The Mull Eagle Watch project attracts 6,000 wildlife lovers a year to its ‘eagle nest’ on Forestry Commission Scotland Land at Loch Frisa on the island.

Half of the money raised by the project is donated back to programs like youth groups in the local community.

“It’s wonderful that through the eagle fund, the eagles are also giving back to local good causes. It’s an example that could be followed across Scotland and the UK,” says Dave Sexton, RSPB Scotland’s Mull Officer.

The program is run by the Forestry Commission Scotland, RSPB Scotland, Mull & Iona Community Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and Strathclyde Police, and is in its tenth year.

Recently, Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish Environment Minister, visited the Isle of Mull to donate £10,000 to the eagle fund and recognise the project for its continued wildlife conservation and promotion of “green tourism.”

By Taylor Turner

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The RSPB has recently announced that it will expand its horizons and not only save endangered species of birds from extinction, but insects as well.

The conservation group intends to bring back endangered species of bees, crickets, moths, and hoverflies on its wide range of nature reserves.

RSPB has decided to look beyond birds and widen its restoration of lost wildlife species in honour of 2010 – the International Year of Biodiversity.

At the top of the list of insects to be brought back is the short-tailed bumblebee that once roamed the south of England before succumbing to extinction due to changes in farming methods.

Although the last recorded population of this species of bee in the UK was in 1988, populations taken to New Zealand by British settlers have managed to survive.

Some of the bees will be brought back this summer and released on the RSPB Dungeness reserve in Kent. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Natural England and bees and wasps conservation group Hymettus will all aid the project.

RSPB and Natural England will also team up to reintroduce field crickets to reserves in Surrey and West Sussex in April.

A severe loss of habitats such as lowland heathland and grassland has caused the field cricket population to decrease dramatically.

They were dangerously close to extinction in the late 1980s after being reduced to a single colony of 100 crickets in Sussex.

The RSPB in Scotland will take on projects to bring back the threatened pine hoverfly and the rare dark bordered beauty moth with the help of Scottish Natural Heritage and Butterfly Conservation respectfully.

Dr. Mark Avery, the RSPB’s Director of Conservation, says it’s important for the organization to not only help birds, but any wildlife it can. In the future this may mean moving various species northwards in an effort to combat climate change.

“No conservation organisation worth its salt concentrates on just one species and ignores all others,” says Avery. “2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and that chimes perfectly with our efforts to protect whole ecosystems on our reserves from the smallest bug to the tallest tree.”

Currently there are 13,000 different species on 200 RSPB reserves that will soon be home to some of the most endangered and uncommon insects in the country.

By Taylor Turner

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