Buzzards

[DaveJ]

There seems to be an absolute population explosion of them around here. I've got a 15 acre field in stubble turnips and this afternoon I lost count at 37 buzzards on the half the lambs have grazed off. What in heck would be attracting so many to a small patch of ground? I can only assume worms.

More to the point, what is causing and sustaining this number of birds which 10 years ago were seen at most in twos and threes? There's certainly a lot more bare ground over the winter due to the encouragement of growing roots under the Welsh Assembly's Glastir environmental scheme, but that can't be it surely? The only other thing I can think of is pheasant shoots. Thoughts?

 

[RushesToo]

I've seen them flocking to graze worms after an easy year, but the explosions tend to crash so back to the normal number the next year. It just happens, goes out of balance and returns to normal. No apparent reason.

 

[tje]

Around here it's the numbers of Red Kites seemed to have from gone from nothing to 15 -20 in a group ....I am guessing it's the massively increasing numbers of game birds ( partridges and pheasants ) .

 

[jondear]

I've seen 30 ploughing a few years ago !

 

[solo]

Ploughing fym a week ago I started the day with about 6 buzzards but by late afternoon I counted 32 feeding on the worms. I presume they were hungry and I provided a meal. Drilling the same field a two days ago and I was back to about 6 again. 20 years ago I had never seen a buzzard here. Rabbits are significantly less along with pheasant and partridge though. No glastir schemes here either.

 

[Chae1]

Gamekeepers not controlling them anymore.

 

[Cowcalf]

then they blame agricultural practises for loss of ground nesting birds ???????????????

 

[TheEarlOfMoray]

Heaps of buzzards here too. Keeps the seagulls away when ploughing so all good!

 

[Happy]

Heaps of buzzards here too. Keeps the seagulls away when ploughing so all good!

Same here. Buzzards becoming the norm when ploughing rather than Gulls.
Remember as a young lad 30 years ago father pointing way up to the sky to show me a buzzard that was circling overhead. Felt lucky to have seen one back then. Now every time you go ploughing there is over half a dozen beside you.

Ground nesting birds have really suffered. Always move curlew & oyster catchers nests across a couple of feet when coming across them working ground for swedes & kale in late April/May but becoming a rarer and rarer thing to have to do.

So obvious that they are sitting ducks for buzzards and other birds of prey but far easier life for RSPB, SNH etc. to just blame it on farmers and modern agricultural methods

 

[thatlldaespot]

A friend of mine watched in dismay a year or two back as buzzards swooped in and emptied all the lapwing nests in the field in front of her kitchen window. The lapwings never returned. But for some reason buzzards are now the avian equivalent of badgers nowadays - untouchable, and innocent of all charges. It's all the farmer's fault, innit.

 

[nelly55]

Red kites,and buzzards here, the latter doing a great job keeping pigeons off my rape

 

[Philip Watkins]

I've seen 30 ploughing a few years ago !

Were they any good at it?

 

[jondear]

Were they any good at it?

Lol

 

[simgirl]

We used to have loads of buzzards here but the numbers have dropped way back as the red kite numbers have increased.

 

[Man_in_black]

When I moved to East Midlands noticed far less of them than back home (Conwy valley)

 

[Longlowdog]

A couple of years back our local activity centre (Lochter Fisheries) caught a buzzard robbing an osprey chick from the nest on its live webcam. I thought the popular feeling might have turned away from buzzards but they are still untouchable.
Red kites cannot be thriving on pheasant/partridge shoots. We were reassured they were carrion eaters when they were reintroduced, though what they do feed on is a mystery to me since it is illegal to fly tip waste and to allow dead stock to remain in fields. Maybe they are feasting on roadkill badgers and roe deer.

 

[fudge]

Were they any good at it?

They will never replace the horse.

 

[Campani]

A couple of years back our local activity centre (Lochter Fisheries) caught a buzzard robbing an osprey chick from the nest on its live webcam. I thought the popular feeling might have turned away from buzzards but they are still untouchable.
Red kites cannot be thriving on pheasant/partridge shoots. We were reassured they were carrion eaters when they were reintroduced, though what they do feed on is a mystery to me since it is illegal to fly tip waste and to allow dead stock to remain in fields. Maybe they are feasting on roadkill badgers and roe deer.

and roadkill pheasants. Must be a dead pheasant every 200m on roads by me

 

[snarling bee]

Red kites have almost replaced buzzards around here as well.
Grain cart driver did see a buzzard take a running rat in stubble last harvest though.

 

[DrWazzock]

We have plenty of buzzards here, often circling high up like vultures. I am sure they help keep the pigeons off the OSR. I don't mind seeing them. Least of my worries.