There is just one bird that features in today's photos. It is a buzzard. I remember when they were not that common in East Anglia. They are relatively so now.
I saw this one as I was approaching the WWT Welney reserve this morning. I was going fairly slowly. That's what you do on Fenland roads if you have any regard for your own safety. They set decided traps for the unwary. I realised that the buzzard was heading for a post, on which it then landed. So I slowed to a stop, about 6 metres (20 feet) from it.
The buzzard saw us. It seemed unfussed. It was looking for worms on the bank - a favourite food of this bird of prey, and was finding them. It obviously saw us, sitting in the car, as no threat. So we put the hazard warning lights on and sat and watched it. When it moved a couple of fence posts down the bank, we followed it. Again, it was not fussed.
The pictures were taken on an iPhone, through the car windscreen.
What a bird.
What a moment.
And yes, the birdwatching that followed was good (whitefronted and taiga bean geese plus 4,000 or more lapping migrating), but not much was going to beat sharing time with a buzzard like that.
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What beautiful pictures. What a beautiful bird.
After Cambridge, If you do eventually arrange one of your meetings in the north, might I suggest that you come to Leeds. Here we have plenty of Red Kites soaring over the city. From my house I see, every day, up to eight. Some swoop fairly low, but I have yet to see one really close up like your Buzzard.
Thanks.
I like kites, but not nearly as much as buzzards, and this monent was nothing like any I had experienced before with them. It was luck, and having a phone in my pocket.
I love common buzzards too. Their cry as they circle the thermals on a summer afternoon – so evocative and quite chillingly beautiful. We had several pairs around us – gone now – seemingly driven out by red kites as they have spread in numbers into Sussex. Strange though, because the two species don’t compete over food sources perhaps an example of correlation not causation. An issue economists and political journalists don’t seem to grasp.
Much to agree with.
Red kites are still uncommon around here, but are creeping in.
wonderful pictures – thank you – and, re my birding, I have had to make do with ‘Swan Lake’ (Varna International Ballet – Bulgarian, but very international dancers, including one English) – Tchaikovsky, so music good and, as usual with that Company, beautiful costumes – oh – and the dancing (despite the difficulties of Buxton Opera House stage) was good too! Now off to ‘The Nutcracker’ – meanwhile the Canada Geese are still absent here, presumably not enough tourists to feed them?
Enjoy!
There were Canada geese, greylags and Egyption geese as well as white fronts and tundra been geese for me this morning. Not bad!
About 200m away from our house, on the far side of the primary school my wife works at, is a large copse containing a buzzard roost. Often get checked out when cleaning the car. Alas the land (green belt) is earmarked for a 250 house development after years of attempts. Wildlife has already declined drastically in the last 25 years, now this, and projected further housing further down the stream valley.
That’s a shame. My nearest buzzards roost about 300m away, and with the A10 in between, I think they’re safe. I hope so.
Hi Richard, when I saw the headline I thought it was either about Trump or Farage. But seeing the pictures showed something much more beautiful and what the world needs, unlike those two charlatans.
Glad to see you had a wonderful day
Thanks
Lucky bleeder!
I love how you’ve captured the highlight in the eyes.
The closest I’ve come to something like this was following a barn owl along one of the Winster roads over the tops one winter’s dusk returning from work – it was just a couple of metres to my left and the journey seemed to go on forever until the owl peeled off to the left…………..toward a barn on the hill of course.
Thanks for sharing.
We were lucky. A massive buzz.