Father And Daughter Buzzards

I have a new toy, namely a new lens for my camera and I am pretty impressed by the initial results. These two videos were both filmed today using the new lens. The top video features what I believe to be a male buzzard. The bottom video features what I believe to be a female buzzard and a female buzzard who also happens to be the yearling daughter of the chap above.

She is my favourite buzzard and I feel special affection for her because you may recall that in early July she was quite badly injured and it was far from certain that she would survive, but thankfully she did, and I very (un) modestly can claim a little credit for helping her to make it through by literally feeding her every day until she was fit enough to hunt again. Now she is good as new and is well on the way to dwarfing her father in size. In buzzard world, females grow to be larger than males, and by comparing these two fine specimens it is quite easy to see that she is already bigger than dad.

Despite these two blood relatives coming to the 'dinner table' within a short time of each other, things are not as they seem. They are involved in a vicious territorial war. The victim, from my observations is always the young lady below. Her dad, and his 'other half' who live close by, give the young buzzard hell and often attack her when she is eating. I think the reason is because once she 'flew the nest', she was supposed to move on to pastures new, but, as is evident by watching these videos, she has not moved on and still lives very close to one of her parents main nests, the nest from where she fledged.

If you do have an interest in this type of wildlife, when watching the video above check out the magpie in the background playing with the stick. I know some people dislike magpies, maybe because they are numerous and noisy, but if you study them closely you begin to realise that they are incredibly intelligent and superb problem solvers. I have a motion sensing camera with a tiny lens and I watched in amazement as a magpie discovered it and worked out that the lens is something of special interest. It had no interest in the movement detector nor the infra-red LED's, what it did have interest in was the recessed lens. After spending an age studying the lens and poking it with its beak, it proceeded to block its view by covering it with compacted soil. It was as if it knew the lens was watching it, which I found amazing.