Keith & Hazel Brockie write:

‘Our garden was host to a special visitor for 2 days last weekend, a 75-day old male Golden Eagle chick. We had taken the eagle chick (under special license) from an eyrie with 2 chicks – they can only be taken from an eyrie with two, so the adults have one to bring up.

The eaglet was collected and taken to Co Donegal in Eire as donor stock for a reintroduction project to bring back golden eagles to the Irish landscape after they had been exterminated by man. This project has been going on for a decade and, so far, two introduced pairs have been breeding in the wild for the last few years.

Success still depends on more birds being released, so hopefully our Perthshire chick will contribute to this exciting scheme.

The chick will be confined in a large aviary for up to 2 months then released into the wild once he knows where food dumps are. Gradually our eaglet will venture further afield when he can fend for himself and, hopefully, will survive to breeding age of five to six years old.’