A big surprise at the riverbank

[kercock]

Today,as Joe(the dog) and I got to the riverbank, a gang of crows were doing their nut about something at the riverside. Knowing that every day this week the otter had been very active in that area,lots of tracks.etc, Assuming this to be the case I was looking at ground level when out of a small tree flew a Buzzard about ten feet from me heading across the river,flying noticeably slowly.
One of the crows took off in pursuit and caught up with it very quickly. The crow lowered the undercarriage and looked like it intended to land on the back of the Buzzard, the Buzzard however flipped over onto its back and grabbed the Crow from underneath and flipped back to the right way up,by which time they were over the other side of the river and hit the ground with a fair old thump.
The two birds separated fairly quickly but it soon became apparent that the Buzzard had injured its wing,it had a couple of pecks at the Crow then hopped away through the trees and stopped about ten yards away. There was absolutely no sound from the crows. I think they were as gobsmacked as I was !
The Buzzard,after a moment or two hopped back toward the Crow (which had not moved) with what appeared to be the injured wing held away from its body then suddenly took off flying very low between the trees and out of sight.
The other crows flew across the river,one of them went very close to the injured crow( as I thought) then the companions flew silently away leaving their foolhardy pal on the riverbank............dead !
I was astonished,expecting to see an Otter and within something like three minutes witnessed a real life and death scene.,one I will never forget.
Denis

[Paul mabbott]

Fascinating event and a great description.

Shame about the crow though; they often attack big raptors but usually, I suppose, not single-handedly?

[tameblackbirds]

Amazing! I watched Crows and Gulls mobbing a Buzzard in Asda car park last week. We live on the outskirts of Birmingham but have been witnessing more Buzzards in this area over the last year. Brilliant story thanks for sharing.

[counterlady]

Wow thats a great story. Poor crow but thats nature

[rossy]

possible the buzzard ,took out the dominant male crow, and thats why the rest stayed silent, must have been fascinating to watch. rossy.