This week, we've had the pleasure of watching up to four buzzards at once, while seated at our desks (and working hard, obviously).
Mostly, they spend time going round and round in circles, as if going up a spiral staircase. They're riding 'thermals', currents of warm air caused by the sun heating up the bare ground in the quarry, which in turn heats up the air near it.
It's fascinating to watch the buzzards getting a free, effortless ride up into the sky. Watching them through binoculars, we can see them looking round from side to side, as their wings are held out, motionless. Meanwhile, their tails twitch from side to side, acting like rudders, and they continue their ascents hundreds of feet above the ground.
It looks like really good fun - no wonder humans have always had a yearning to become airborne themselves...