Flying Barn Door

Second winter White-tailed Eagle, Weybourne, 16th March 2015

Yesterday a White-tailed Eagle was tracked from it’s overnight roost in Essex, across Suffolk, through central Norfolk to Warham Greens on the Norfolk coast, where it presumably roosted. This morning it continued it’s journey east along the coast, being first spotted over Cley NWT at 7.50am. We caught up with it, sitting on the shingle ridge, close to Kelling Quag, as seen from Warborough Hill. It was eventually flushed by a dog walker, took off and headed towards Weybourne, where we were able to intercept it and get it on our newly created NENBC list! It continued along the coast to Cromer, where it headed inland. It was last reported from Hickling, mid-morning. A second winter bird, this was my fourth in the county. White-tailed Eagle, commonly dubbed the ‘Flying Barn Door’ are, as the name implies, truly enormous. However, it’s not the overall scale and power of the bird that gets me so much as the size of it’s massive beak! Here are a few more snaps, taken at various locations:

First seen from Warborough Hill, sitting on the shingle ridge, at a distance of over a kilometre