She’s fledged!

She’s fledged! Our young eagle was 11 weeks old on the 1st of July and she marked her birthday by leaving the nest around 7:15pm the evening before. We didn’t actually see her fly off and, indeed, a young white-tailed eagle’s ‘first flight’ away from the nest is often more a case of hopping and flapping from branch to branch, and short glides to other trees. In the two days prior to leaving she had been clambering further and further up one of the branches and spending long periods perched up there before flapping back down into the nest. On the evening of the 30th June she clambered up the branch, out of sight and that was it – she didn’t come back into the nest.

We think she ended up on the ground after her first flight and for the first 10 days she appeared to spend most of the time out of sight in the undergrowth or perched on fallen trees. Throughout this time, mum was never far away, perched in nearby trees and keeping guard. However, chick’s Satellite tag shows she finally made some short flights over the weekend of 11th/12th July. She she still hasn’t travelled far from the nest, but we expect her to gradually venture further afield as her flying skills improve and her confidence grow.