Golden eagles soaring south back to English skies

Jo Lonsdale

BBC North East and Cumbria Investigations

After years of absence, golden eagles are beginning to venture back into England from the south of Scotland, leading to hopes they might nest. Among those crossing the border in 2025 was a young male called Talla.

Wildlife enthusiast Ian Glendinning has seen the UK’s second biggest bird of prey many times in the Scottish Highlands, but he never expected to encounter one in his home county of Northumberland.

“It was the end of March and I was driving in a remote corner of the national park with a couple of friends and the rear passenger suddenly shouted out ‘what on earth is that?’,” he says.

“I looked over to my right and about 30 metres away there he was, sitting on a rocky outcrop.

“Before I could get my phone out for a photo it glided away, but it was absolutely colossal, there was just no doubting what it was.

“I would defy anyone not to be impressed seeing such a huge bird at close range.”

Talla is one of around 50 golden eagles living in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

Their resurgence is thanks to the work of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project (SSGEP), set up when the population in the region had dropped to a mere handful.

• Listen to more about the return of golden eagles on BBC Sounds

Since 2018, SSGEP has successfully translocated 28 juveniles, collected at six to eight weeks of age, and 15 sub-adult golden eagles between four months and three years from the Scottish Highlands.

SSGEP chair Michael Clarke said: “Thanks to our satellite tagging, we can confirm that some are beginning to venture into Northumberland and further afield and these sightings reaffirm the importance of us extending our groundbreaking work.”

The birds have also visited the North Pennines and the Lake District, even travelling as far as the Forest of Boland in Lancashire and Nidderdale in Yorkshire.

“While it is too early to say if they are settling in these areas, it is a potentially exciting and significant milestone,” Mr Clarke said.

Golden eagles were wiped out in England and Wales by the mid-19th Century, mainly due to persecution by those who saw them as a threat to livestock or game birds.

Despite a brief return following the two world wars, when driven shoots largely ceased, numbers gradually declined again with the last resident golden eagle in England disappearing from the Lake District in 2015.

The UK’s remaining population was then largely confined to the Scottish Highlands and Islands, particularly in remote, mountainous regions.

Dr Cat Barlow, CEO of the charity Restoring Upland Nature, which has taken SSGEP under its wing, said it is not surprising to the birds “exploring in England”.

“In the first few years of life, the birds will go looking for new territory, looking for a mate, looking for new feeding grounds,” she said.

“They’ll get up high in the sky and head for the areas that look interesting to them, usually those remote upland areas.

“They create a visual map of where they’ve been and when they find what they think is a good place, they’ll settle there and try and attract a mate.”

Welcoming a possible move south, she said: “I’m from County Durham myself and I’d love to see them back for good there.”

It is not yet clear whether a golden eagle population in areas like the Lake District, or the Northumberland Uplands will establish itself without birds being brought from Scotland.

“In theory, as available territories fill up in the south of Scotland, eagles will begin to move into England and they have been visiting old nest sites,” Dr Barlow said.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust CEO Mike Pratt said: “They don’t see a border and the landscape either side of the borders of England and Scotland is so similar it’s not a surprise they’re coming south.

“The sightings are almost like the golden eagles giving their blessing and saying that the landscape can take them.”

The charity has recently acquired the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland; 9,500 acres of land which include the Simonside Hills.

Mr Pratt hopes one day golden eagles will be present there.

“It won’t be a rushed process and we’ll be consulting carefully, but the project in the south of Scotland has been such a success, people really love them.

“I would like to think the same could happen here.”

Mr Glendinning has seen golden eagles three more times since that first shock sighting in March and feels a sense of “wonderment” each time.

“They just fit in perfectly with the landscape, I just felt a real sense of amazement that they are there and I can see them,” he said.

“It just feels like they belong here.”