Notable or notorious? Buried deep amongst the shady confines of Knightwood enclosures coniferous plantations, the Eagle Oak stands as if hidden away in shame. The Oak itself is innocent of any crime, although it was the site of a most shameful event when in 1810 a forest keeper, for reasons hard to fathom, shot the last Sea Eagle in our land which had shelter amidst the boughs of the afore mentioned Leviathan. Eagle Oak, one of the true ancients of the forest, is weathered, many of its branches know little more than ragged stumps; still, steadfast, bruised and battered by the elements and time this ancient tree endures as does the Sea Eagle who has tentatively, 200 years later, been reintroduced in to the UK.
Now I may be talking off the top of my head, but I gather it was quite common for country folk to kill wild birds of prey up until the middle of the last century.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was done in much in the same way some fishing communities still kill seals now, fearing that their presence will impact their catch.
In this way, the gamekeeper may have been protecting the game, in the mistaken belief that the sea eagle (often a carrion bird by choice) might take a pheasant or two and deprive the gentry of their sport.
Obviously this point of view is born out of ignorance, and wonderfully ironic given that if anything threatens the long-term viability of any animal on Earth, it will most likely turn out to be man, fish stocks being a case in point.
A sea eagle, AKA white-tailed eagle, was recently spotted not far from the western border of the New Forest on private woodlands in Downton, Hampshire:
http://www.hos.org.uk/image_archive/2011/images/01/Bird---White-tailed-Eagle-0.jpg
Sweet
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