Use your eagle eye to spot these birds

ALBERTON – A pair of Verreaux’s or black eagles, seen for the first time during 2003 at Meyer’s Farm in Alberton, require further investigation according to Boudewijn van der Lecq, project manager of the Klipriviersberg Verreaux’s Eagles Inc WBC.

The eagles have been seen at Meyer’s Farm and along the greater Klipriviersberg ridge system.

Members of Raptor Conservation Projects have been monitoring the eagles since 2007 when they were breeding in a power pylon off the Reading Interchange having raised numerous chicks to juvenile and fledgling stages.

During the latter half of their 2008 breeding season, their nest was deliberately destroyed which forced an 80-day-old juvenile to fledge prematurely. In order to prevent this from reoccurring, an artificial nesting platform was erected with the permission of the late Hans Meyer and a donated mast from the then Siyavaya Highway Construction JV in 2009.

The eagle pair managed to raise a chick to juvenile and fledgling status during 2010. The male eagle left the family in 2010 and has not been spotted since resulting in the female raising the protege alone.

Twenty-one months and 13 days later, during 2013, the female attracted a new male partner. The new pair bred successfully during 2013, 2014 and 2015.

According to the Raptor Conservation Project there is currently a five-month-old juvenile within the proximity of the farm, learning eagle skills from the adult eagles. The process can take up to six weeks to complete before the fledgling leaves the territorial boundaries of her parents.

The conservationists do not know the full extent of the pair’s territorial boundaries and are asking for public participation in order to find them.

As much information as possible about the eagles and where they have been seen is needed to find out where the boundaries of their territories are. For more information, browse the Klipriviersberg Verreaux’s Eagles Inc WBC’s Facebook page.