This year its 10 years ago that the first White-tealed sea eagles bred again in historic time in the Netherlands. A pair bred succesfull in the Oostvaardersplassen. This pair have since bred every year succesfully and in the 10 years the population has increased from 1 pair to 5 pairs in 2015 : - the pair at Oostvaarderplassen - IJselmonding - a new location, the female of this pair hatched herself at Oostvaardersplassen. - Biesbosch - here 2 pairs are breeding and in one of the nests 3 chicks are raised at the moment which is very rare in this species ! - Zwarte Meer - here also the female hatched at Oostvaardersplassen. A sixth pair made a breeding attemp at Lauwersmeer but left the nest after a large branch felt into the nest. In the last 10 years ( this year not included ) 28 young fledged succesfully. Also in other European countries the species is doing well, in Germany for example in 2010 700 pairs and in Denmark in 2011 38 pairs.
White-tailed sea eagles are doing great also in Eastern-Central Europe. The Czech republic has a breeding population of + 100 pairs, Austria has 20, Slovakia 10 etc.
The funny thing is that there were plans to reintroduce sea eagles in the Netherlands, but fortunateley by the times these plans came up, a pair of wild sea eagles decided to pick NL as a breeding ground....
The Czech population was grounded by 9 captive-born birds released between 1977 and 1985 in South Bohemia. They were donated by a German falconer Claus Fentzloff and the release was organised by Ing. J. Andresku, who worked in castle at Zoo Ohrada. In second part of 20th century, sea eagles were almost extinct in Central Europe. They were breeding along Baltic coast, and then there were very few pairs (like 3-5) at Danube in Hungary. Without the reintroduction in South Bohemia, we would have to wait another 20-30 years till the species would come in a natural way here.
White-tailed sea eagles.... Reintroduction project in Eastern England was stopped because farmers were afraid eagles would eat free range piglets
2022 was a good year for the Dutch White-tailed sea eagle population : 30 young hatched of which 22 left the nest . Article ( in Dutch ) : Recordaantal zeearenden bouwt dit jaar nest in Nederland | Dieren | NU.nl
