Unidentified BoP's

[wildherbalian85]

I was watching 2 Birds of Prey from the bottom of my road flying high in the sky, i'm curious to know what these birds where.

Both where gliding high doing small circular circuits then moving forward a bit and repeating the process. They where light coloured birds but due to hight & distance i could not make out much more then that. I noticed very little movement of the wings.

They appeared to be medium sized....... but again because of hight and distance it was hard to tell.

My initial thoughts where of a pair of buzzards but due to location** and colour i ruled this out.

** I have seen earlier in year buzzards less then a mile from where these 2 where but i have only seen them twice and they have not been seen by me for several months now.

My second thought was of it being a pair of sparrowhawks.... my reason for this being the circular flying technique. I witnessed a male Sparrowhawk doing this recently and only on Sunday i saw a female too doing this - but not nearly as much as the male had.

But i'm not too sure with it being sparrowhawks because they both had light (i'd say grayish) appearance and where hunting together.... is this not rather odd for sparrowhawks?? Males hunting together??

The only other bird that did spring to mind was a Peregrine but i have never knowingly seen one and i am unfamiliar with there hunting techniques.

[Jenny W]

Hi,

Sounds like Buzzards to me. The behaviour is right and they are such a variable species colour wise - they range from dark brown to light almost buff/beige colour and can be anything in between!

They are just about everywhere in the country these days, so I would have thought the location would be OK too? Please correct me if I'm wrong though cos I don't know the south coast very well at all!

[diggleken]

You have described a sort of classic raptor hunting behaviour,circling then moving on - Jenny is right, its very buzzardish, but equally , as you say, sparrowhawks do this and then again, so do peregrines!
Height isnt completely helpful, but if they were very high indeed, then peregrines are more likely I suspect, but the colour you describe isnt ideal.
Buzzards and sparrowhawks tend , and that isnt clear cut at all, to be a bit lower!
One way to help might be to have a look at a website with video footage of them all - eg, peregrines are quite distinctive in flight - described as winnowing.
If you let us know size that would also be a help, but sounds as if its difficult without comparison.
Any other views out there?
Cheers
Ken

[Picidae]

At that height and from the way you describe them circling and gliding in an ongoing direction, also given the location and time of year, may well be migrating Common Buzzards - (rather than hunting) or even Honey Buzzards. Buzzards will use the circling movement to alter their height according to available thermal, then glide to gain distance. It's been exceptionally warm today on the South Coast with good thermals, so I'd expect some mig. movement. Certainly young Osprey have been moving through too, so I wouldn't rule that out either, especially given the 'greyish' appearance.

[wildherbalian85]

Hi, thank you for the replies.

I am willing to rule out buzzards purely on colour and size. Though i can not say for certain that the size was not large it did take on more of a medium size, especially when it was (briefly closer).

Now this video shows a close up of what these (my) birds where doing....

YouTube - Riverside Peregrine

Though at a much grater hight... i am not implying that it was peregrines that i saw but i'm not ruling it out either, they are known in the Portsmouth City area.

Oh whilst looking for peregrines in flight i did spot this....

YouTube - peregrine playtime

its brilliant and well captured, i particularly liked the buzzard and peregrine play time

[Jenny W]

Did you get anything on the shape of the wings?

[Stinky Bob]

I too would have thought it was buzzards as I see them do almost similar and not only in pairs, could it have been juveniles, too early in the season I would have thought for something like the goshawk sky dance

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by Stinky Bob

I too would have thought it was buzzards as I see them do almost similar and not only in pairs, could it have been juveniles, too early in the season I would have thought for something like the goshawk sky dance

Goshawks over Portsmouth ...... seriously Portsmouth is one of the most densley built up cities in the country. Buzzards until this year i would have said no but i did see 2 earlier this year not to far from todays sightings near a small wooded area along the shoreline.. Peregrines and especially sparrowhawks are known in the city. Kestrels too.

[Stinky Bob]

Ah sorry, I must of missed the Portsmouth bit

[Picidae]

Ian please don't take this the wrong way but I wouldn't dismiss people's various suggestions too quickly. One should certainly think about not ruling Buzzards out on colour, they show the most variable plumages amongst all BoP and size is certainly deceptive in the field, especially with high fliers and distant views. I know Portsmouth fairly well and have birded in the area a number of times. Despite it being a City, it also is close to various locations such as Farlington Marshes/Langston Harbour which regularly have Buzzard, Osprey (during the autumn), Hobby, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine (not seen Gos in the area though). It is also on a migration route for raptors this time of year which means habitat is not an important consideration with fly overs and height they were flying could very well suggest birds on migration rather than local hunters.

I also live in a South Coast city and regularly see Buzzards etc flying over along with the usual city suspects.

Given the lack of more specific details from your observation; the given details of which doesn't rule out either Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawks, Peregrines and a few others I can think of, I don't think it will be possible to safely identify these for you and we can make any number of guesses with Buzzards, Peregrines and Sparrowhawks all being good intenders all of whom will circle and glide at various heights for various reasons as do all raptors, since this is how they find thermals and cover distance. (With some more field experience and taking notes when you see distant raptors, you will soon be able to ID a raptor even with poor views and at least confidently separate falcons from acipiters from buteos, but it takes practice, practice, practice as 'they say'! A good field guide also helps.)