Chopping down trees to stop sea eagles nesting near to sheep is among measures being trialled to stop Britain’s biggest bird of prey killing lambs.

The move comes with predictions that sea eagle numbers are set to double over the next decade.

Scottish Natural Heritage previously almost doubled the fund that pays for preventative measures and other problems caused by sea eagles to just over £400,000 covering three years.

Now SNH and its partners are piloting new attempts to reduce the impact of sea eagle predation on sheep farming.

Removing trees where sea eagles nest next to lambing areas and new scaring methods are two techniques being tested on a small number of “monitor farms” in west coast locations.

These methods are being trialled in places where other management measures, such as extra shepherding, have failed to prevent loss of livestock.

SNH granted a licence this week to Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) to fell two trees where sea eagles have nested previously. The trees are on the National Forest Estate, north of Oban, Argyll, next to a farm where losses of lambs from sea eagle predation has been “thoroughly investigated and demonstrated”, said SNH.

“It’s hoped that removing nest trees will encourage birds away from areas where they’re feeding on lambs, as eagles can move nest locations when nests are destroyed by natural causes,” said the agency.