Today I saw...

AN EAGLE !!!!!!!

(I wish the following photos were mine, but they are not...)

Source of photographs is http://www.vattenriket.kristianstad.se/ornar

I was on my way home from school today when I saw my FIRST swedish Eagle.

*happy*

I don't know if it was a Golden Eagle (Kungsörn in swedish)

or a young White-tailed Eagle aka Sea Eagle (called Havsörn in swedish)

Actually I saw two, but I couldn't stop the car and one of them was circling over the field very close to the road. Unfortunately no chance to pull over or anything...

I surfed the net after I got home and there are about 150 (mostly juvenile) White-tailed Eagles spending the winter months here in the area around Kristianstad and it's famous Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO) and the nearby coastal line.

The Sea Eagles were almost exterminated in the late 50s due to the use of the pesticide DDT.

But then activists started to set up a program to help those wonderful birds to survive. Up to this day it has not been possible to take this species from the "red list" of endangered animals, but the numbers have gone up remarkably.

There are counting around 300 pairs today in Sweden (numbers relate to Sea Eagles only).

It doesn't seem a lot, but it is compared to 30-40 years ago.

Here a couple more facts:

Eagles can reach an age of 30 years.

In captivity an Eagle can live up to 40 years.

The nest they build starts out with a weight of about 100kg.

Over the years, as the birds are improving their homestead/nursery, the nest can grow up to a weight of 1000kg, be over 2 meters wide and a couple of meters high.

It's no surprise that they need a very strong tree to build this nest on, right!

That tree should be high and at least 100 years old.

So that is why it's no surprise either that today's modern forestry is now the Eagles biggest enemy.

Another fact is that they are majestic animals.

We really gotta visit one of the bird-watching towers around the Vattenriket pretty soon.

Gotta see more!

:))