National Parks and Wildlife Service staff are delighted to announce that White Tailed Eagles have again nested in the Old Oak woodlands of Killarney National Park.
This is not the first time that such an exciting event has happened in the Park. Killarney National Park was the first release site for the White Tailed Eagle reintroduction phase 1 in 2007. Indeed over the past ten years White Tailed Eagles have sporadically nested and successfully fledged young back to the wild from nest sites located within Killarney National Park. This iconic flagship reintroduction project now has White Tailed Eagle nest sites in Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, Clare and Galway.
Divisional Manager National Parks and Wildlife Service, Éamonn Meskell, said “Killarney National Park is particularly suitable for White Tailed Eagles because of a readily available fish supply from the Lakes of Killarney. Also, the habitat is particularly suitable with a plentiful and healthy suite of Woodlands and suitable trees within those woodlands to accommodate White Tailed Eagle nest sites.”
The White Tailed Eagles have worked their way into the lore and culture of Killarney and many visitors to Killarney National Park experience the sight and sound of White Tailed Eagles soaring above the Lakes of Killarney and onto Tomies and Purple Mountain and also Knockrower to Molls Gap. Éamonn continued “This apex predator is now firmly establishing itself into the landscape and ecosystem and is a credit to the sterling work that National Parks and Wildlife Service staff have put into this project over the past 16 years.”
Discover Kerry have also been told that a rare sighting of an Osprey was also recorded on the Lakes of Killarney last week.
For more information on Ireland’s National Parks visit https://www.nationalparks.ie/
Text & Images: Valerie O’Sullivan