Hi all,
About 2 weekends ago around noon on the saturday I was just looking up to the sky and to my amazement saw about 14 raptors what looked to be approx 8 buzzards and then 5 or 6 smaller falcon like birds. Was an absolute delight to watch as they were climbing up and circling on the thermals.
After chatting to a couple of people it tunrs out this is common in buzzards and i thought I was just lucky enough to catch them migrating.
Sat in the garden today just taking a few pics of the dunnock and to my suprise, looked up and saw 4 buzzards again, this time I had the camera so managed to get some shots, they were riding the thermals again and were really high but managed to zoom and get these.
Are these more likely to be local buzzards just enjoying the weather, I know of a pair that nest about ten minutes from my house so wonder if this is them with this years chicks?
They were around for about an hour so again a lovely saturday afternoon, oh this is over in Manchester just near the Airport.
This is the little fell that I was watching first, cute little bird with attitude :-)
I would guess if these birds thermalled for such a long time, that they would be local but always worth scrutinising Buzzards at this time of year - and a good photo like the ones above can help a lot. Not unknown for the common buzzards to hide the odd Honey Buzzard or even as the Autumn draws on, a Rough Legged...
Cheers
Matthew
Thanks both, these are all common buzzrds then? Woulod have been great to see a Honey or rough.
Thanks Both
Nice photos. About 2 weeks back, all the rooks and jackdaws that live nearby in Darfield "went up" and in amongst the whirling birds, I spotted a number of buzzards. Then today down at Broomhill, there was a similar uproar over Wombwell Ings which turned out to be a single common buzzard being mobbed by crows and 3 grey herons. We seem to have a lot more common buzzards now around Darfield than I recall from past years.
Its great that we have so many of them these days, we just need as many of the other raptors now. In the last 10 years the kestrels in my area have vanished, but appear to have been replaced by Buzzards, there seem to be more sparrowhawks about to. Maybe I just wasnt spotting them before. Thanks for comments.
Wow that would be fantastic to see. I saw a documentary once which showed a falcon roost and there were hundreds of falcons that turned up every night at this one tree. I cant remember what birds they were but think it was filmed in South Africa, was amazing.