Are these buzzards

[watsthat]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

Buzzards do eat worms and I only see them stalking the fields when it's wet, in fact they look like bedraggled hens at times. Would they do this when the ground is hard or even frosted?
Have tried to zoom in but the resolution's not good enough to define outline or anything else. Covey of English Partridges was my first guesstimate.

At last; a modicum of common sense!

I was beginning to wander what planet I`d woken up on this morning?

ID impossible

Cheers

Pete

[Jason Green]

Yep, well and truly off it

[Lance Morgan]

Looks like a small covey of partridge.

[Gill Catton]

partridges for me too they just look too plump in the body to be buzzards.

And yes I think lots of animals rely on earthworms, kestrels eat them too. They're relatively easy food when it's damp and they're out and about.

[tameblackbirds]

Originally Posted by Hedge Witch

Ooops. I was thinking it was a field of Partridge

me too

[Pete Collins]

I wouldn't like to say what they are from those photos, they are just a little too distant unfortunately. Definitely not corvids or pigeons, though. Not convinced about the Buzzard theory - a very good spot, if they are, I'd think it would be quite unusual to see that many together.

As aeshna5 and others have pointed out, Buzzards do feed on worms. I saw this myself for the first time just the other day - there were two Buzzards feeding in the middle of an arable field. I see them all the time on my walks in the northern Home Counties, but I'd only seen them in the air or on trees before.

[tafrost]

Definatly not Buzzards or corvids, I think either Grey Partridge or Female Pheasant, the latter being most likely considering they are just outside a woodland edge.. When I used to plough up our arable fields in Dorset, I used to get around 20 buzzards following the plough eating the worms with the gulls. Have also heard Buzards will take moles when they are putting up a mole hill, although I have never seen this myself.

A revisit to the site would probably be a help.

Cheers
Tim

[Pete Collins]

Originally Posted by tafrost

... When I used to plough up our arable fields in Dorset, I used to get around 20 buzzards following the plough eating the worms with the gulls....
Tim

That's very interesting, I've not seen that behaviour by Buzzards myself, though I've seen something similar with Red Kites. I did once see one Buzzard with about 14 Red Kites over a field that was being ploughed.

[Picidae]

Hi 'words'

Is that actually chichester marina or Pagham Harbour - ie. on the way down to Church Norton - that view across the reed beds to the far fence looks very familiar!

Either way, both Buzzard and Grey Partridge are in the area but Buzzard usually not in such high numbers - if it's the field I'm thinking of, there is usually a long line of Grey Partridge feeding along the fence edge if that helps. I honestly can't tell for sure from pics but they do look like a bit like Grey Partridge and a few Wood Pigeons to me and I can't even rule out waders/eg plovers or curlew!

I think such an unually high number of Buzzards in the area probably would have been reported/seen by others tbh. (15+in your pic?)

[shearwater66]

I think they could be Golden Plovers!
The bird on the left (in the cropped pic) has a large wader type head and shape.