Rare white-tailed eagles draw crowds of watchers

Two wild white-tailed eagles have attracted flocks of photographers after being spotted flying along the south coast.

The pair were seen around Christchurch and are part of the white-tailed eagle reintroduction programme led by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation on the Isle of Wight.

The birds were driven to extinction in the UK in the early 20th Century. Now, the male of this duo has become the first to fledge in the wild in Dorset in 240 years.

Lewis Slavin, a photographer and avid birdwatcher from Yeovil, said he gets "a buzzy feeling" when he sees them.

Four times a week, he travels for more than an hour from his home in Somerset to catch a glimpse of the birds.

He said he has family in the area and spends entire days watching for the eagles and has now seen them dozens of times.

"I get like a little kid," he said.

"It's great to see them and they're wild, so it's even better. They're out there doing their thing, and to know that this pair down here is a mating pair just tops it off for everybody, really."

Charlotte Caetano, from Bournemouth, has also been photographing the eagles, which are the UK's largest bird of prey, with a wingspan of up to 2.5m.

She said: "You can be sitting there twiddling your thumbs for quite a while, and then all of a sudden the other birds, the seagulls and crows, start kicking up a fuss.

"They erupt into a large cloud and you think, 'hang on a minute, something's coming'. It's just a spectacle. Wonderful."