Forty satellite tags are going onto sea eagles in the west

Forty new satellite tags are going onto sea eagles in western Scotland over the next two years, as part of a project looking at how the birds and livestock interact. Up to 35 of those go on chicks at around eight weeks old, when they're full-sized and a fortnight or so off fledging.

NatureScot is funding the tags and working with RSPB, SRUC, Natural Research and a collective of independent ornithologists, with NFU Scotland and the Scottish Crofting Federation feeding in on policy. The tags can last years, so they'll show where the young birds go after they leave the nest.

NatureScot senior ornithologist Andrew Stevenson says the gap in the knowledge is the immature birds, which wander widely for three or four years before they settle on a territory. SRUC is separately fitting GPS collars to lambs in Argyll.