Going for gold

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) perched in pine tree, Lochaber, Scotland

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The golden eagle is one of the most iconic birds in the Cairngorms National Park. Their numbers have fluctuated over the years, but there are promising signs that the population is recovering thanks to conservation efforts such as tagging. As part of the Cairngorms Raptor Project, we are working with Raptor Study Groups across the National Park to monitor and support our eagle populations.

The inside track

Satellite tagging of chicks gives us the opportunity to collect information on where they travel to when they fledge and how they use the landscape, which helps to build a picture of their behaviour. Our tag data feeds into a national data set adding to the sample size and contributing to understanding of golden eagles in Scotland. Ewan Weston and Andy Davis are specialist independent ecologists, licenced raptor workers and members of the North East of Scotland Raptor Study Group - they have been undertaking this work for the Park Authority over the last four years.

Sarah Henshall

Patience is a virtue

Andy Davis explained, "The initial stage of the tagging project involves establishing where golden eagles are nesting - they can use alternative nest sites within their territory and this can take some time to track down, involving long walks to remote locations and long hours, waiting and watching! We also need to establish if the female is sitting on eggs, followed by further visits to determine hatching dates and to age chicks. Then we wait until they are around eight weeks old to tag them. This is the ideal development stage pre-fledging.”

Mark Hamblin

Off the beaten track

Ewan Weston said, "Tracking young eagles allows us insight into the lives of these young birds from when they leave the nest, right through to finding a territory - a process that takes several years. As the golden eagle population continues to recover in the Cairngorms National Park and land use and management evolve, tracking data gives us a detailed view into how eagles use the landscape as it slowly changes over time."

Ewan Weston

Eastern promise

This year tags have been fitted to eagles on estates in Deeside and Donside, including an estate within the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership. Eagle chicks grow really quickly. When they hatch, eagle chicks only weigh around 100g but after some 40-50 days males weigh about 3.5kg and female chicks can weigh over 4kg!

Sarah Henshall

The future is golden

Isla Graham, Raptor Conservation Officer at the Cairngorms National Park Authority, said: "It’s a great time to be working in eagle conservation and to see them starting to flourish again in the National Park. The data collected from the tags can be used in many ways and we look forward to sharing more information about the movements and journeys of the eagle chicks we have tagged this summer, and how they are doing.”

Mark Hamblin