Dive-bombing Buzzard

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bankst
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

Dive-bombing Buzzard

Post by bankst »

Dive-bombing Buzzard:

I was out running on the country lanes around Whitley on Sunday (26/6/2011), when I felt/heard a rush of air past the back of my head. I turned and saw a Buzzard (Buteo buteo) soaring away. It turned in the air, fixed its beady eye on me and hurtled towards me again, kicking out as it flashed over my head. I stood my ground and faced it, whereupon it landed in the top of a nearby Ash tree, but as soon as I turned to move away, it set off towards me again, crying out as it swooped. This routine was repeated six or seven times until I was a good 100 yards away from the site of the first swoop. I was beginning to think it would follow me all the way home when, half-way into its last bombing run, a pair of Carrion Crows arrived on the scene and gave the Buzzard a taste of its own medicine!

This is probably fairly regular behaviour, perhaps the Buzzard was trying to drive me from its nest site or away from its fledged chicks in the surrounding trees, but in many years of trying and failing to get close enough to Buzzards to get a half-decent photo, I've never experienced this level of aggression. Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing along the leafy lanes of Cheshire? It was reminiscent of a happy afternoon I spent on Orkney, almost literally pinned to the ground by a marauding Bonxie - fantastic!

Tom.

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