This note, by a then-prominent member of the Club, first appeared in ‘British Birds’ issue 40:6 (page 184), in June 1947.
Bird and place names were spelt as shown. For their current status, please see our county lists.
White-tailed Eagle in Worcestershire.
Some considerable publicity has been given elsewhere to a record of a Golden Eagle (Aquila ch. chrysaetus) which was reported to have been shot at Wannerton, near Kidderminster , on December 25th, 1945 (cf. antea, Vol. xxxix, p. 379–380). At the request of Mr. A. J. Harthan I inspected this bird, as the record had at that time been substantiated by no detailed description. On examination the bird proved to be a juvenile Sea-Eagle (Haliaetus albicilla) and not a Golden Eagle as had been reported. In general plumage the bird compared very closely with the description of the juvenile given in The Handbook (Vol. iii, p. 94). The bill was far deeper than in the Golden Eagle, measuring in this case 55 mm. from the cere, the centre toes were covered for nearly their whole length with twelve separate scutes, exactly as in the diagram in The Handbook, Vol. iii, p. 42, and at least half of the tarsus was bare of feathers.
C. A. Norris.
Reproduced by kind permission of British Birds 
.
Thanks to Dr. Malcolm Ogilvie for scanning the original, from his collection.
Ornithology in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire & the West Midlands county, since 1929.
Fetched from http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/bibliography/british-birds/40-184.htm on Friday 24 May 2013 09:37:11
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