A proposal to translocate white-tailed eagles to Cumbria that has been in development for a number of years (see here) has reached the public consultation stage.
The Cumbrian White-tailed Eagle Project is being overseen by a steering group comprising the University of Cumbria, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, The Lifescape Project, RSPB, the Wildland Institute, the Lake District National Park Authority alongside local estate owners and managers.
According to the steering group, research has indicated that Cumbria has sufficient suitable habitat to support a population of white-tailed eagles and the county is considered an important strategic location to encourage links between other populations in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland and the south of England.
The group is now engaging with the public to listen to views on bringing back this species to Cumbria and has begun a series of drop-in sessions, meetings and workshops (details here).
Unsurprisingly, this news has triggered the usual idiotic fear-mongering hysteria about white-tailed eagles based on ignorance and a persistent Victorian attitude to raptors, led, of course, by The Telegraph:
This is just lazy journalism. Had The Telegraph bothered to undertake any research at all, it would know that a series of scientific studies have shown that white-tailed eagles are generalist predators with a broad diet, and the most recent study from Scotland (here) shows that lambs are not an important food source for this species but marine prey is. This finding is also supported by a recent dietary study from the WTE Isle of Wight Reintroduction Project (here), which also concluded “there have been no cases of livestock predation since the project began“.
The hysteria was continued by this tweet from Mark Robinson, a farmer in North Yorkshire whose Twitter bio says he’s also the Reform Party spokesperson for the Thirsk and Malton Constituency (having failed to get elected in June). According to Farmer Robinson, the eagles will be ‘snatching up babies’ -:
It sounds like Farmer Robinson has been reading the discredited guff of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, who has previously written to the Scottish Government about concerns that white-tailed eagles might eat children (here).
UPDATE 23 October 2025: Should White-tailed Eagles be reintroduced to Cumbria? Another questionnaire seeks your views (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
Ah yes… the Trump/Musk approach to dissemination of facts. Great :/
Ummm… I assume it’s obvious I was referring to Farmer Robinson’s approach…
Yes, it was. And I appreciated it:-)
As they say, ‘Ignorance is bliss!’, so, presumably, it’s all ‘shits & giggles’ at the Telegraph & Reform UK Thirsk & Malton! Proper journalism, proper research, informed & responsible farming seem to be in short supply, though!
I am disgusted that blimps such as farmer Robinson of Reform persuasion thinks any fairly knowledgeable person would believe babies would be snatched up by White-tailed eagles, and small dogs and cats. Who in their right-mind would leave such a vulnerable child on an open landscape like the Spartan and other cultures did in the past? Babies and children in general are more in danger of adults of the type who appear in the newspapers every day for gross and fatal abuse. How many small dogs and cats ascend to heaven with the aid of eagles? The Telegraph and Reform UK party stigmatise themselves with allowing such puerile nonsense to be the base of their criticism of the reintroduction of this essential addition to the skies of our depleted countryside. Sad to say, there is an element of reactionary belief still predominating in our management of the natural landscape, and there is a part of our political class which is made up of plain stooges. for a powerful and well-funded blood sport industry caucus.
We are also witnessing the “revolt” against a new National Park, this time for Galloway, with the redoubtable rebel Fergus Ewing sounding loud and large against it. His noisy presence is also to be felt with the Cairngorm National Park where he once helped a crony try and get away with cutting down a stand of Scots pines for a parking place. Also, where any USA golf course billionaire wants to intrude and destroy some protected area, hard-fought for. Do such gowks not realise that we have a whole planetary threat to all forms of Life, and the compassionate and scientifically informed are ensuring that we are part of rewilding much damaged marine and terrestrial environments? The White-tailed eagle is part of that assembly of wildlife and plant life necessary to establish a foundation for recovery for future generations to enjoy.
The “Galloway Revolt” has little to do with all of this. National Parks have proven in Scotland to be just as wasteful and broken as in England. (I am no fan of Ewing but sometimes you can’t pick all your supporters.)
All my contacts here in Galloway COMPLETELY support the protection of the environment but NOT led by an expensive cabal of park authority appointees.
Deplorable reportage and scaremongering from The Telegraph.
Even worse by the Reform Party.
How are they allowed to get away with it?
Are there no rules against printing such misinformation?
If not, there should be. Possibly with fines just to help deter others reporting similar
“Deplorable reportage and scaremongering from The Telegraph...
Are there no rules against printing such misinformation?”
Let’s stir up some trouble….
https://www.ipso.co.uk/making-a-complaint/
i wwould consider complaining to IPSO about inaccurate reporting and demand a correction but I doubt that the Telegraph bother being members because, of course, they are never at fault or in error! Worth keeping an eye on other papers and websites that are members though in case they repeat the same nonsense…
“but I doubt that the Telegraph bother being members…”
But they do. See https://www.ipso.co.uk/home/arbitration/patricipating-publications/
Great, I’ll do that now and hopefully all other blog readers will do too
I’ve just sent a complaint to Ipso. First time doing it and I found the procedure quite straightforward.
Same as the hysterical nonsense we have to endure about beaver in the Strathglass and Glen Affric catchment. Beaver were on the river Glass for fifteen years and nobody took any notice until they were mentioned in the media and then all hell broke from the local farmers.
Oh here we go yet effing again, sadly this article continues to be relevant https://www.scotsman.com/news/sea-eagles-not-taking-lambs-to-slaughter-2473455 . Funny how the SGA worry about sea eagles snatching children, but don’t seem to care about the ACTUAL deaths, serious injuries and permanent maiming resulting from car collisions with a grossly bloated red deer population in the Highlands thanks to them. They should have their feet permanently held to the fire over that, but it’s only brought up once in a blue moon if ever.
Likewise I wonder why the Telegraph never does articles about the flooding caused to towns like Perth, Dumfries and Carlisle (in Cumbria as it happens where the 2005 flood alone cost more than four hundred million quid) because of tree less uplands thanks to highly subsidized sheep farming and/or open hill deer stalking and of course grouse moors. It’s clearly not an issue if lowly townies have to brush mud out of their homes and dump sodden carpets in the streets as long as the various branches of the rural mafia are kept happy.
The pathetic arguments about maintaining food security are an utter joke, not only does upland sheep farming provide so very little (expensively) for human consumption the flooding it causes hurts production on good quality farms below – so it compromises food security! The real predators the public needs to worry about don’t have wings, they have bank accounts and more than likely a range rover.
I live on the Isle of Wight and the popularity of the Sea Eagles has most definitely grown and is such a positive thing that on a giant sized mural we have the Sea Eagle leading the way for the other pictorial representations of things that the Island is well known for. They really are “flying barn doors” and our local newspaper often has photos and follow ups on their breeding progress.
I would suggest the “farmers fears” regarding white tailed eagles reported in the Telegraph are instigated and perpetuated by the sort of headlines and skewed journalism that newspapers such as the Telegraph print.
I am reminded of the fear and loathing some farmers have for badgers due to the way badgers were blamed for the spread of bovine TB in cattle. It would now appear that this belief may well be wrong, and that badgers played little if any part in the spread of bovine TB. The badger cull was not the answer promised and promoted, and it now seems was a politically motivated decision to deceive farmers into believing the government was taking the farmers fears seriously.
The risk is that articles such as the one in Telegraph are then circulated and embellished on social media with even more nonsense (as appears to be the case with the comments from Mark Robinson), and then believed as the truth by those without the common sense or intelligence to question and challenge what they are reading. This ignorance then becomes dangerous as some of these misinformed readers will no doubt come to very warped conclusions that their livelihoods are at risk and they must act to save themselves, their families and the countless lambs, babies, kittens and puppies which will be snatched up by these ferocious predators. (Readers might like to consider what happened on Capital Hill in the US when Trump supporters were encouraged to believe the presidential vote had been stolen and democracy had been usurped)
What then follows is the illegal persecution and killing of these magnificent birds. (Something we have already seen in Dorset). These birds have every right to be part of and live safely in our countryside, and I suggest the Telegraph would do far better if it reminded its readers that the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, due to habitat loss and the reckless way we have treated the countryside. Perhaps the Telegraph could report that without meaningful reform to encourage and ensure economic prosperity for farmers to engage in nature friendly farming this loss of nature will continue, and rather than fear white tailed eagles they should welcome their return as a way of demonstrating to the British public that modern farming can thrive along with nature.
Ah, those crafty Sea Eagles carefully avoid lambs with satellite tags. Elsewhere, they cover up all those thousands of babies being carried off by Sea Eagles. Methinks it’s not about lambs at all, but the landowning, shooting lot, trying to get farmers riled up, for numbers.