Buzzards in the garden???

[DCLion]

Hi all
Just joined.

I was out in the garden this morning and couldnt quite indentify a bird sat on the shed at the bottom of the garden, just as i was about to try and get a little closer, it lauched itself, swooped past me and bagged itself a starling in the garden next door. I managed to get a much closer view by standing on a bench.

Now, i have several queries.
I'm fairly sure it's a buzzards, birds of prey is my thing i guess haha. The colouring suggests this. I have never heard of buzzards coming into folks gardens, let alone taking birds on the wing as it were. Plus the fact it didnt kill it, the noise the starling made was ruddy loud, my cats were going ape trying to get next door to 'help' finish it off. After a good 20minutes the starling was dead. The buzzard then flew off to nearby trees.

Is this usual???. I always thought buzzards take rodents and mostly ground prey. Would the fact it's a juvie be a factor?.
I know we have kestral, hobby's,little owls, tawny owls and a couple of pairs of buzzards in a nearby wood/reserve, and i've even seen a red kite or two coming down from high wycombe...clue to which area i'm in there .

I will now be keeping a very close eye on the garden to see if it's a regular visitor .

Lion

[rossy]

welcome dclion, i think you will have witnessed a sparrowhawk , did it ground the starling and enclose its wings over it by any chance ? rossy.

[htcdude]

My first thought was Sparrowhawk, as I made this mistake in the summer. I posted asking for an ID to confirm if it was a Common Buzzard or Honey Buzzard, turned out it was a female Sparrowhawk :-)

[solus]

Almost certainly a Sparrowhawk.

[digannio]

I live in the North-east of England and from my garden (we live about half a mile from open countryside) I spotted what I think may have been a buzzard. I have to say it wasn't in the garden but quite high above. It was a reasonably large bird with broad wings and brown to fawny coloured. It was circling and every now and again flapped followed by a short soar in the circle. It circled higher and higher until so high that it was very difficult to see.

From the behaviour/description would I be right in marking that one down to a buzzard? I couldn't track down the binocs in time!

[Farplace]

Very probably. There are several buzzards in the darlington area.

[faz]

Originally Posted by DCLion

Hi all
Just joined.

I was out in the garden this morning and couldnt quite indentify a bird sat on the shed at the bottom of the garden, just as i was about to try and get a little closer, it lauched itself, swooped past me and bagged itself a starling in the garden next door. I managed to get a much closer view by standing on a bench.

Now, i have several queries.
I'm fairly sure it's a buzzards, birds of prey is my thing i guess haha. The colouring suggests this. I have never heard of buzzards coming into folks gardens, let alone taking birds on the wing as it were. Plus the fact it didnt kill it, the noise the starling made was ruddy loud, my cats were going ape trying to get next door to 'help' finish it off. After a good 20minutes the starling was dead. The buzzard then flew off to nearby trees.

Is this usual???. I always thought buzzards take rodents and mostly ground prey. Would the fact it's a juvie be a factor?.
I know we have kestral, hobby's,little owls, tawny owls and a couple of pairs of buzzards in a nearby wood/reserve, and i've even seen a red kite or two coming down from high wycombe...clue to which area i'm in there .

I will now be keeping a very close eye on the garden to see if it's a regular visitor .

Lion

very unlikley to be a buzzard i woul go with sparrow hawk

[faz]

Originally Posted by Farplace

Very probably. There are several buzzards in the darlington area.

as farplce says i too think its a buzzard you saw from your description of the flying pattern

[digannio]

That's excellent, I'll have to keep my eyes to the skies much more often. Farplace, you maybe will know, where would be the best place in the Darlington area to get the best chance of seeing them?

I live near the countryside at Barmpton close to Whinfield and I did notice on a walk along the Skerne out that way that there are a couple of large nest boxes that have been put up on big posts. The boxes overlook the Skerne Valley near Barmpton on the edge of the forested area that has been planted. Do you know if these were put there for buzzards? Didn't see any on the walk but I did see a huge flock of lapwing feeding in the open fields near the river. There must have been over 100, marvellous sight, but I'd love to get a really good sight of a buzzard if that's their area.

Do you have them in Weardale? I'm quite fond of a trip up into Weardale... Stanhope, Cowshill, Wearhead, Ireshopeburn, St. Johns Chapel and beyond! Mind, that's a biting old wind that whips up in your face!

[Dorts]

I would definitely go for Sparrowhawk. Sounds like fairly typical behaviour to me, 'swooping down and taking a bird'.
We have literally dozens of Buzzards around here all day and every day, but have yet to see one in the garden, let alone swooping down to take anything.
Dorts.