Hare and buzzard

[Humble Village Farmer]

They were everywhere 8 years ago, far too many for the food available I suspect. I remember counting 18 buzzards and 6 kites in one 12 ac field when I was drilling swedes about then. Still plenty about, just not quite such ridiculous numbers, thankfully.

I put their decline down to being, without doubt, the dumbest birds that ever flew. A crow eating a tasty bit of roadkill will fly off as a car approaches. A buzzard will look up at the car and wait for it to hit him.

What seems to have happened here, possibly similar to your situation, is that the arrival of the kites has really started to limit the buzzards' dominance. In fact they have pretty much ruled the roost since they turned up about a year ago.

Do you reckon anything has changed regarding their various food sources?

 

[Sharpy]

Humans are the only animals to hunt things to extinction.

Like that lighthouse keepers cat that wiped out all the birds of one species on its island? Something like 60 percent of extinctions are by animals.

 

[Levelsman]

Plenty of examples to prove it.

Certainly seem to be more hedgehogs and ground nesting birds around since Brock has had a predator.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Certainly seem to be more hedgehogs and ground nesting birds around since Brock has had a predator.

What predator is that? I thought the problem with badgers was that they don't have one.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Like that lighthouse keepers cat that wiped out all the birds of one species on its island? Something like 60 percent of extinctions are by animals.

Within something like 2000 years of humans colonising Australia, they had hunted 23 of the 25 biggest mammals to extinction. There are similar stories in places like South America and Madagascar. Even Britain had a more exotic range of mega fauna, but I'm not sure whether they got killed by humans or didn't survive the cold of the ice age.

 

[Levelsman]

What predator is that? I thought the problem with badgers was that they don't have one.

Part of Defra's 25yr tb eradication plan....which might be short lived!

 

[tinsheet]

Pheasants give an advantage to the predator here, nothing to see 50 60 buzzards behind the plough.
Never used to see many, till the arrival of pheasants.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

They were everywhere 8 years ago, far too many for the food available I suspect. I remember counting 18 buzzards and 6 kites in one 12 ac field when I was drilling swedes about then. Still plenty about, just not quite such ridiculous numbers, thankfully.

I put their decline down to being, without doubt, the dumbest birds that ever flew. A crow eating a tasty bit of roadkill will fly off as a car approaches. A buzzard will look up at the car and wait for it to hit him.

Have you more kites though?

Round here we see buzzards plucking grey chicks and then hounded in the air by the kites forcing them to dump their catch.

Kites are thus ‘eating carrion’ and buzzards spend all day killing.

BOP in general are out of control now, it used to be a joy to see them, now it just makes me

 

[Danllan]

Kites are the 'shitehawks' mentioned by our ancestors, it was a crime to kill them and ravens because they did a public good.

There is, or seems to be, a balance between kites and buzzards here now - the prat down the valley who was feeding huge numbers of kites has stopped.

The coincidence between modern humans arriving in any given environment, and it's mega-fauna's extinction is too great to be rationally dismissed.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Kites are the 'shitehawks' mentioned by our ancestors, it was a crime to kill them and ravens because they did a public good.

There is, or seems to be, a balance between kites and buzzards here now - the prat down the valley who was feeding huge numbers of kites has stopped.

The coincidence between modern humans arriving in any given environment, and it's mega-fauna's extinction is too great to be rationally dismissed.

They first released in a few places, one round us and One in your neck of the woods at Dinas, near the damn. Must have been early 90’s I’d say?

At the time it was great to see them, how things have changed....

 

[melted welly]

They were everywhere 8 years ago, far too many for the food available I suspect. I remember counting 18 buzzards and 6 kites in one 12 ac field when I was drilling swedes about then. Still plenty about, just not quite such ridiculous numbers, thankfully.

I put their decline down to being, without doubt, the dumbest birds that ever flew. A crow eating a tasty bit of roadkill will fly off as a car approaches. A buzzard will look up at the car and wait for it to hit him.

I saw some amazing crow teamwork once, driving along road and there was 4 or 5 crows in a loose semi circle in a grass field around a pheasant and certain it looked like they were driving it towards the road where there was already a pretty flat collection of feathers.

 

[neilo]

Have you more kites though?

Round here we see buzzards plucking grey chicks and then hounded in the air by the kites forcing them to dump their catch.

Kites are thus ‘eating carrion’ and buzzards spend all day killing.

BOP in general are out of control now, it used to be a joy to see them, now it just makes me

Kite numbers seem to be about the same as they were 8 yrs ago and, like most species, I don’t mind seeing a few about, so long as they can be kept in balance.

I’m sure we must all be mistaken though, Packham and his buddies tell us these birds only ever eat carrion. They never, ever, take live prey. Tw*ts.

 

[texelburger]

Leverets are a major target of buzzards, we have too many round us but as usual idiot "experts" made them protected when they were rare but dont allow culling when too many, of course it is the farmers fault when hares are near extinct

About 5 years ago I counted 54 buzzards on an eleven acre grass field.I haven't a clue why they were there,probably feeding on some grub or insect.This autumn there have been regularly 20/30 buzzards on a seven acre field,again I don't know why.There are certainly a plethora of them in our area along with increasing numbers of Red Kite .We also have Peregrine falcons,Sparrow Hawks ,Kestrel and other birds of prey in increasing numbers.
I thought Chris Packham said that numbers were declining due to the actions of farmers and gamekeepers ? How wrong can a man be.

 

[thorpe]

About 5 years ago I counted 54 buzzards on an eleven acre grass field.I haven't a clue why they were there,probably feeding on some grub or insect.This autumn there have been regularly 20/30 buzzards on a seven acre field,again I don't know why.There are certainly a plethora of them in our area along with increasing numbers of Red Kite .We also have Peregrine falcons,Sparrow Hawks ,Kestrel and other birds of prey in increasing numbers.
I thought Chris Packham said that numbers were declining due to the actions of farmers and gamekeepers ? How wrong can a man be.

your lucky to have the kestrels if you have sparrow hawks, they luv em!

 

[texelburger]

your lucky to have the kestrels if you have sparrow hawks, they luv em!

Well I think they are both Kestrel and Sparrow hawk as there are definitely two different smaller birds of prey flying around.

 

[ritchiekirkland]

They were everywhere 8 years ago, far too many for the food available I suspect. I remember counting 18 buzzards and 6 kites in one 12 ac field when I was drilling swedes about then. Still plenty about, just not quite such ridiculous numbers, thankfully.

I put their decline down to being, without doubt, the dumbest birds that ever flew. A crow eating a tasty bit of roadkill will fly off as a car approaches. A buzzard will look up at the car and wait for it to hit him.

I hit a buzzard in the road like that not that long ago . Did exactly that , looked at me then flew straight into front of pick up , full trailer load on , couldn’t do anything …..

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

your lucky to have the kestrels if you have sparrow hawks, they luv em!

We have both here.

Apparently what you want is goshawks to control sparrowhawks. They like them and are faster.

 

[Danllan]

They first released in a few places, one round us and One in your neck of the woods at Dinas, near the damn. Must have been early 90’s I’d say?

At the time it was great to see them, how things have changed....

Yep, that was a fair bit North of here; we were still in Herts on the edge of the Chilterns when kites were released, on the other side of Bucks to us I think. I remember being on leave and seeing my first kite over our place, and I was very excited. Some time soon after that I was walking a puppy across a pretty large field when one came and shadowed us closely, it even took a swoop down to the pup, but only to have a closer look, no attack.

Not from a release scheme, but I remember when buzzards came back too, a few years before that. It was a great thing, they'd been wiped out locally and I delighted in seeing them soaring; in all honesty I still do, and the kites, it;s just the way that other species are ignored in their 'favour' that annoys me.

Lots more kesterels back then too, fewer now - but more hobbys and merlins though...

 

[Dry Rot]

All birds of prey will compete for territory which will limit their numbers to some extent. Small birds make up for losses by having several broods each year and often having big broods too. But most mortality occurs over winter.

Goshawks are becoming more plentiful. Haven't seen a kestrel up here for years. I used to see merlins when they moved to the low ground during winter, but nothing lately. Peregrines are more common, also ospreys. Buzzards and kites too, but not yet in nuisance numbers.

I have argued for years that licences should be issued to falconers to remove problem birds, train and fly them, then release them at the end of the season. That's what sometimes happens in much of the rest of the world. But it was pointed out that captive breds are cheaper and not a lot of modern falconers could train a wild trapped bird anyway. Thirdly, those who have hawks making a nuisance of themselves often solve the problem in their own way and don't want to attract official attention!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

I would think there was hardly a buzzard or kite in East Anglia 30 years ago. I would see one or both every day now.