Listen
Welcome for sea eagles
16/06/2008
Environment Minister Michael Russell promised a warm welcome to a batch of sea eagle chicks when they arrive in Scotland this week.
The chicks - or eaglets - will be flown out on Friday and be released into the wild as part of the East of Scotland Sea Eagle reintroduction programme.
Mr Russell was taken to see the birds before they fly out as part of a fact-finding visit to Norway and was accompanied by representatives from the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage.
After seeing the birds in Ålesund, north west of Oslo, he said:
"The sea eagle is a magnificent and very large bird of prey, which disappeared from our shores many years ago.
"Their reintroduction in the west of Scotland in the 1980s has been very successful and last year we welcomed a small group of birds to the east.
"After becoming extinct in Victorian times due to persecution, reports that they are thriving in the east is excellent news for Scotland's biodiversity.
"The group of eaglets I met yesterday are still relatively small but will quickly grow into huge birds - even bigger than a golden eagle.
"They will bolster the eastern population and further aid our drive to ensure that the sight of a sea eagle soaring over our woods and waterways becomes an increasingly common sight.
"Our thanks, of course, go out to the Norwegian government for their co-operation in further extending the reintroduction of sea eagles to Scotland.
"I will shortly have the pleasure of officially greeting the eaglets when they touch down in Edinburgh on Friday and I'm sure the people of Scotland will join me in giving them a warm welcome."
The East of Scotland Sea Eagle reintroduction programme, a partnership of Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland and RSPB, will run for five years (starting last year) and will see up to 20 chicks being brought to Scotland each year.