Buzzard - normal behaviour?

[clairep1]

Hello

WE have quite a few buzzards around here ( quite rural on the south coast). I often see then flying around or in the trees in the woods.

However the last 3 days whenever I have visited my horse there is a buzzard standing in the middle of the field. It is not pecking at the ground or anything just standing there. After I have looked at it for a bit it flies off, initially into a low tree then somewhere else and I lose sight of it.

There are rabbits in the field, and even slow worms round the edges of the field, but the ground the bird is on is dry and hard now.

So I was just wondering if this is normal behaviour for a buzzard or perhaps it is unwell ? I think it is a buzzard - it has the wings that from the underneath are dark round the edge and pale in the middle and it is big. It is quite pale coloured compared to a lot of them so I am not sure if that means it is younger or not?

Thanks for any comments
Claire

[Farplace]

If it is able to fly it is probably ok.... Sounds strange though. Perhaps it likes your horse??

[King Edward]

Buzzards often stand about in fields, so this sounds normal to me. Possibly looking for worms/beetles.

[~T~]

I quite often see one standing in a field beside the motorway on the way to work then one further down the motorway standing on or walking casually along the the grass verge so I suppose it's quite common.

[nigel_b]

Sounds good to me. Quite a large proportion of their diet can be worms. I watched one on farmland once walking round like a chicken pecking at the ground for about 45 minutes.

[Rye]

This is normal. Today I saw a large female buzzard (on size) standing on a small portion of grass (50 x 50yds) in amongst roughly 30 rabbits, adults & kits. I thought that was daring and rather strange, I do often rather see the rabbits or usually 2 buzzards on that patch, certainly not together like I saw today.

I do have to say though the grass area is on the edge of a business park and the rabbits are very tame. Strange sight either way, the buzzard could of taken any of those kits with ease.