North Tipperary was one of three sites across Ireland chosen as the location to re-introduce eagles into the wild.
21 white tailed sea eagle chicks from Trondheim in Norway were released at sites in Lough Derg, the Shannon Estuary and Killarney National Park.
This is the second phase in a programme to re-introduce the birds to the Irish ecosystem.
Regional Manager with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Eamonn Meskell told Tipp Today that Lough Derg is an ideal area for the birds.
“This is called a sea eagle, it’s the golden eagle you’d have in the mountains and all these areas.
“The sea eagle does go into mountain areas and high land, but it does frequent the waterways and the lake systems and that’s why Lough Derg is such a valuable habitat for the white tailed sea eagle.
“They’re out there in the countryside, they’ll fly until they find either a dead carcass or something like that and they’ll stay with that maybe for a week, or a month, or however it is.
“When they have a nest site with young, well then they have to have a ready supply of fish – so that’s why you get the nest sites all along the lake shores and rivers and that’s why Lough Derg is so valuable.”
He stressed that their research proved that the eagles pose no threat to farm animals due to the nature of how they hunt.
Eamonn said that people around Lough Derg could spot the eagles, but would need to be looking for them, despite the vast size of the birds.
“You’ll see them out in the open countryside, on a nice, warm and breezy day, you look up to the skies over Lough Derg and you’ll see these powerful birds soaring.”
