Wild white-tailed eagles returned to Surrey’s skies for the first time in more than a century.
A reintroduction scheme was launched on the Isle of Wight by the Roy Dennis Foundation, aimed at bringing the birds, which can have a wing span of almost eight feet, back to southern England.
Six were collected from Scotland with a special licence, and they were fitted with satellite trackers to monitor their movements.
Tracking data shows two have flown through Surrey since the end of March.
On top of that, by a bizarre coincidence, a bird spotter pictured a wild white-tailed eagle just over the border in Worcester Park however that eagle was part of a small influx of the birds that was brought to the UK from Europe on strong easterly winds in March.
The organisation behind the reintroduction project confirmed that sighting was not one of the Isle of Wight eagles.
The last time the eagles were recorded in Surrey was when one was shot at Titsey Park in Oxted, in 1906, while all of the previous six Surrey sightings came in the 19th century.
The birds were hunted to extinction in the UK in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before being reintroduced in recent years. There are now around 130 breeding pairs in Scotland and efforts are ongoing to reintroduce them to other areas.
Isaiah Rowe is part of the Surrey Bird Club, and pictured the eagle over Worcester Park on April 13.
He said: “For the past few weeks I’ve been recording birds of prey as they pass, logging more than 50 individual raptors, mostly buzzards and red kites which are unusual in my part of Surrey.
“On April 13 at 2.30pm I noticed a large bird of prey drifting at quite a height, heading fast and firmly south”
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