As visitors to Arne will know, we have several cameras set up around the reserve looking at lots of different nests. Last year we had the excitement and drama of the barn owl and kestrel boxes and we are hoping for more of the same this year but we have an exciting new addition! This year we have a camera on a nest of my favourite bird of prey, the buzzard! The pair ofbuzzards first turned up a few weeks ago and since then they have been really busy getting the nest ready for laying in the next few weeks. Both birds have been in with fresh pine branches and it really does look like a desirable residence for any discerning buzzard! The pictures come complete with sound and we have heard the pair mating just off of camera (think they must have been a bit shy!).
The most exciting thing is that we have all of this streaming live to our website! So settle down in the comfort of your own home, office, or internet cafe and watch the first buzzards nest to be filmed inDorset right from the start!
The birds are appearing daily but they will be more regular when the female lays her eggs. Buzzards usually lay their eggs in mid April but because of the good weather it could be a bit earlier so you will have to watch to find out! http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/a/arne/webcam.aspx
If you would like to keep us updated with what you are watching then join in with this discussion. This worked brilliantly with the kestrels and barn owls last year so let’s see if we can get it going for the buzzards this spring! I am really excited about what will be happening in the next few weeks!
08:24 - Maybe I'm hallucinating - this camera picture keeps twitching about.
08:39 - Quack, quack:
Quack,Quack.
Shouldn't say this but... mummy kestrel was looking very happy incubating her 5 eggs on Camera B today. :-P
:(
lots on the nest today..:-)
Capturing the Light with an original perspective displayed in every Photograph..perhaps
it seems that the buzzards have left for a 3 bedroom en suite ;-)
Always the risk of camera frightened them off,it has happened with Sea Eagles where they had to quickly remove it and they went straight back to the nest.
I don't think that this is the case here - The camera was put up very early on when the nest wasn't being used to cause minimum disruption and there was quite a bit of activity for the first few weeks with both adults building up the nest. The most probable explanation is that the buzzards may be using another nest. This sometimes happens with buzzards when they will have more than one nest site. We are monitoring the situation and will make the descision to switch over to something different in the next few days which will be a shame because it was looking promising in March!
So we have admitted defeat for the time being - The kestrels are back online and she is sitting on five eggs - we haven't missed too much because we only got the camera up and running again in the VC a week or so ago. She has laid at least a couple of weeks earlier than last year and looking back in the diary the first egg hatched on the 21st May.
And I know the information on the webcam still refers to the Buzzards nest this will be changed over soon as well.