A YOUNG white-tailed eagle named Aspen that fledged in Glengarriff in 2025 made an extraordinary grand tour of 26 counties over a 48-day period.

Conservation officers with Glengarriff Nature Reserve have produced a flight map showing how Aspen took in Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Kildare, Dublin, Meath, Louth, Monaghan, Armagh, Down, Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Fermanagh, Cavan, Roscommon, Galway, Clare and Limerick on her journey.

And, if that wasn’t excitement enough, Glengarriff Nature Reserve conservation officers have also reported that a woodpecker nesting hole has been found high up in a dead tree.

They are hoping that this will be the first year that the Great Spotted Woodpeckers successfully breeds in the woods.

It was during the COVID lockdowns that readers of The Southern Star tuned-in to Ireland’s first ever sea eagle webcam that allowed people anywhere in the world to watch the development of two white-tailed eagle chicks from the comfort of their own home.

Since 2007, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has been working with partners in Norway​, along with farmers and communities around the country​, to reintroduce the white-tailed sea eagle and establish a population in Ireland.

Although once native to Ireland, the white-tailed eagle, which is a bird of prey, became extinct in the nineteenth century.

Their reintroduction is considered important in terms of protecting the country’s biodiversity, similar to the reintroduction of wolves in other countries.

In Glengarriff, chicks were named and regular updates were provided.

Online followers, and readers of The Southern Star, got to know with whom they mated and how many chicks they had – all of which was made possible by the special identification rings on their feet.

The popularity of the project reached a peak in April 2020 when figures for the webcam spiked at 55,000 on Twitter, as well as almost 50,000 views on the Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve Facebook page, which amounted to more than 100,000 views within weeks of the webcam going live.

Since the project began, 245 chicks have been released into the wild throughout Ireland.

In Glengarriff, sea eagles have become part of the natural appeal of the woods and day-trips to Garinish Island, where some of the nests can be spotted high up in the trees.

Minister of State for Nature, Christopher O’Sullivan TD, confirmed that when Aspen was just eight weeks old she was fitted with a satellite tag so the NPWS could follow her movements after she left the nest.

One sea eagle's flight path over 48 days.

Aspen fledged at 13 weeks and then spent two months with her parents learning to hunt fish and seabirds in Bantry Bay.

Records show that she left home on September 12th 2025 and quickly established her desire to explore, making a large loop of Munster over ten days.

Deputy O’Sullivan explained that white-tailed sea eagles don’t breed until they are five years old, so Aspen could keep travelling for a while yet before she settles down.

Her father is Brendan, who fledged from a nest in county Kerry in 2018, and her mother is ‘P’, an eagle brought to Ireland from Norway in 2011.