Eagle has landed - and the feathers are flying

A RARE bird of prey involved in a flagship reintroduction project is terrorising a Fife farm just days after being released into the wild.

The white-tailed sea eagle killed hens at Balmalcolm Farm near Cupar last week and has since made regular return visits.

Bird experts have warned that the eagle, one of 19 recently released on the east coast of Scotland could begin to regard the farm as an easy source of food and may decide to settle in the area.

The attack happened on Wednesday night after the sea eagle managed to get inside the chickens' coop.

Treina Samson, daughter of farm owner Alex Samson, said: "We shut the chickens in their coop as normal the night before. The next morning, one of the staff went to let them out and saw lots of feathers but no chickens. Then he heard a weird noise, so he shut the coop and looked through the window and saw this huge bird sitting in there. It was quite a shock."

The chickens usually produce around 130 free range eggs a day, which are sold in the farm shop.

"We are worried that this is stopping our chickens from laying eggs," added Samson. "I don't understand why they decided to release them (the sea eagles] in Fife. They are amazing birds and it is great to have them in the country - but it is going to have quite an impact on our hens. It's not really the area to be releasing them as it's highly populated and highly agricultural."

The sea eagle was released from the coop after the arrival of Wayne Poole, a falconer at Kingdom of Fife Falconry, who said: "It had somehow managed to get in through the hatch into the chicken coop. Before they were released into the wild, they fed through a hatch and it's possible they might associate the chicken coop with the hatch and see it as a source of food."

Speaking about the decision to release the birds in Fife, a spokeswoman from the RSPB said: "Fife was chosen as a release site because sea eagles are lowland birds. Young birds are inexperienced when it comes to collecting food but they will soon develop the skills to find food in the wild as it is their instinct to do so."

A spokesman for the East Scotland Sea Eagle reintroduction programme said the sea eagles were all fitted with transmitters and the situation at Balmalcolm Farm would be monitored.