Foals taken by sea eagles?

I can't help but be very suspicious about these reports. One couple claimed that they had lost 200 lambs, carried off by white-tailed eagles within a short period of time. This is enough to feed the entire UK population of sea eagles! Apparently they were demanding compensation - others accused them of losing the lambs to bad husbandry and blaming the eagles.

I'm not sure if the foals in question were standard or miniature, but even a miniature at 5 weeks old would weigh much more than any eagle could carry. Not only that, a foal can move at a reasonable pace, making it difficult for the eagle.

A number of white-tailed eagles have been released in the south of England; these are all tagged, so it's easy to track where they are. But as far as I can tell there have been no reports of predation of sheep (or foals) in England. Eagles will tend to take the easiest option, which is likely to be much smaller prey (eg, rabbits).
 
I think most of us are aware that a lot of sheep are lost to insufficient checking and management. When I was doing fieldwork in East Anglia I knocked on doors more than once to look for help for prolapsed sheep that had been that way for a while judging by the state of them. That's just in fields by a road near houses, not on a moor miles from anywhere. Loads of sheep are left in mud with no shelter to eat turnips off in Norfolk and most are lame. I've seen the remains of ewes that have got stuck in bogs in the uplands - what a horrible death and who puts sheep on blanket bog?! Everyone knows lambs dying of exposure is common. No one seems to get nearly as upset by those things as by the remote chance that a big bird might be getting a free meal.
 
The white tails near were seen carrying a live fallow deer fawn. The male dropped it then the female came back the next day and picked up the carcass. Very different size from a Shetland foal though.
 
CastlelackSportHorses said:
Ill throw my 2 cents it.
I have and do own birds of prey.
Also rehab wild birds of prey and corvids.
Sea Eagles are scavengers for the main part, if they are taking foals/lambs they are probably already dead and pulled apart.
Buzzards weight around 500g and cant carry much more than a half rabbit, sea eagles are not much more the 4/5kg in weight and can't carry much more than that.
So to say their carrying off foals I highly doubt it.

I have flown a Golden eagle and they are bigger than sea eagles and even they struggle with a big rabbit.
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Sounds a fabulous hobby, or is it a business? Impressive birds!
I don’t know much about eagles, although plenty of hawks round here, occasional kites, pair of buzzards intermittently, even a weird European vulture on one occasion - brought all the twitchers out.
Re buzzards and what they can carry:
Nearly 20 years ago, my horses started freaking out in the field, spinning, rearing up, and heard a huge commotion. We ran out to see a very big bird carrying something, being harried by loads of smaller birds all screaming at top of their voices. They swooped about, noise was tremendous, and suddenly the large bird dropped whatever and soared away from them. We ran down the field and found it had dropped a fox. Not a big adult, but not a tiny cub either, it was still alive although in a real mess.
Stuart fetched a shovel to finish the poor thing, by which time several walkers had arrived, having observed the bird chase, and confirmed it was the buzzard. There had been two circling earlier, although the other left when the little birds kicked off. Didn’t weigh the carcass, but it was rather more than half a rabbit.
 
Exasperated said:
Sounds a fabulous hobby, or is it a business? Impressive birds!
I don’t know much about eagles, although plenty of hawks round here, occasional kites, pair of buzzards intermittently, even a weird European vulture on one occasion - brought all the twitchers out.
Re buzzards and what they can carry:
Nearly 20 years ago, my horses started freaking out in the field, spinning, rearing up, and heard a huge commotion. We ran out to see a very big bird carrying something, being harried by loads of smaller birds all screaming at top of their voices. They swooped about, noise was tremendous, and suddenly the large bird dropped whatever and soared away from them. We ran down the field and found it had dropped a fox. Not a big adult, but not a tiny cub either, it was still alive although in a real mess.
Stuart fetched a shovel to finish the poor thing, by which time several walkers had arrived, having observed the bird chase, and confirmed it was the buzzard. There had been two circling earlier, although the other left when the little birds kicked off. Didn’t weigh the carcass, but it was rather more than half a rabbit.
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Hobby really and I help out a local rescue that takes in unwanted Birds of Prey.
 
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