A few years ago I could never have imagined writing a blog post with this title, but with birds starting to wander from the Isle of Wight release scheme and satellite tracking showing that one had previously crossed patch airspace, the prospect of seeing a White-tailed Eagle around the Teign had actually become a realistic scenario. After the bird first seen near Exmouth on Friday had flown inland from Dawlish late this morning, I headed out to Flow Point to see if I could intercept its path. As I got in the car just after 11:00 the phone rang; Laurie had picked up the White-tailed Eagle from his house, soaring over Netherton/ Combeinteignthead! A quick change of plan and I soon located the bird from the Passage House car park, and watched it track slowly westwards towards Buckland/Newton Abbot. My camera chose the perfect moment to play up so I only managed a dreadful phonescoped shot, although the eagle was always high and never particularly close. Laurie soon arrived along with several other passing birders who got onto it, although by this time the eagle was over Newton Abbot and moving ever further away. It was eventually lost in the direction of Abbotskerswell/Kingskerswell at 11:40.
Certainly a memorable day and hopefully just the first of many local sightings of this magnificent raptor!
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| White-tailed Eagle (honestly!) |
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| Flight path |
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