Short-toed Eagle found on Dorset beach taken into care
A Short-toed Eagle has been taken into care after being found exhausted on the beach at Hengistbury in Dorset, yesterday.
Originally it was thought the bird was an Osprey but when Joshua Sollitt saw a post on Twitter about the bird being taken into care, he alerted the carers that they had something much rarer.
The bird has been taken to a wild bird rehabilitation where it is now being cared for.
We will provide updates on the bird’s condition when we get them as well as any plans for a release if the bird survives.
This is the fourth confirmed Short-toed Eagle in Britain. The first was found on the Isles of Scilly during the memorable Autumn of 1999 where it ranged over the archipelago for 3 days
A one-day bird in Devon on October 16th was only seen for just a few minutes in the Exmouth area, meaning a wait for birders who didn’t manage to connect with the Scilly bird.
Fast forward to 2014 and the wait would soon be over. On 31st May during a monthly guided walk run by the Birds of Poole Harbour one of the participants pointed out a raptor, perched in a tree, to Paul Morton. After initially calling the bird as a pale-phase Buzzard on distant Paul and the group got better views and were able to reidentify the bird as a Short-toed Eagle. The bird was twitched by a few hundred birders before it departed the following day. Throughout June and July the same bird was seen in Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and finally at Santon Downham in Norfolk where it was last seen on July 20th.
6 October 2020
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