News broke this morning that a dark-morph Booted Eagle had been spotted two days ago during a volunteer work party by Alan Lewis, and it was refound today a few miles away by Chris Heard. Since it was too late to travel down, I made arrangements to meet Dan Pointon in the morning.
Having missed the pale-morph Booted Eagle in Cornwall a few weeks ago, I hoped that this bird would still be around in the morning.
I met up with Dan just after 7:00 AM, and we drove to the east of Warburg Nature Reserve, where the Booted Eagle had originally been found. Finder Alan Lewis was already on site looking for the bird. We saw a good number of Red Kites and Common Buzzards, but unfortunately little else.
We headed towards Remenham Hill next and pulled up in a layby overlooking the area where the bird had been spotted the previous day. There were so many red kites in the vicinity that we had already counted over seventy birds by 9:00 AM. Just after 9:30 AM, while we were looking north towards Remenham Hill, Dan called out, "I've got it!" I managed to spot the bird, but it was constantly being mobbed by red kites. As Dan alerted other birders about the booted eagle, it descended into the woodland.
Ash Howe, Simon King, and James Hanlon had since arrived, as they were just down the road. It wasn't long before the Booted Eagle emerged from the woodland, still being harassed by Corvids, and headed toward us.
Booted Eagle (C) Simon King
We all had great views of the bird before it eventually flew back toward the hillside and landed again. What an impressive sight! We were so fortunate that it flew so close to us. After this, we travelled to the other side of the Thames in hopes of getting more views of the bird, but it was seen flying east over Henley, so we only managed distant observations.
A dark-morph Booted Eagle was photographed in Cornwall in May this year, marking the first time this variant has been captured on camera in Britain since the well-known pale morph that was spotted in Ireland and later in Britain between February 1999 and June 2000. The latter still remains in Category D of the British list. The bird observed in the Chilterns is likely the same dark morph seen in Cornwall in May 2024. This eagle was noted during the annual influx of Red Kites into the region and has joined a group of Kites as they returned to the Chilterns. Since the Chilterns is an area that is often overlooked, it is quite possible that the eagle has been present there for some time.