Author Topic: Cycling buzzards...  (Read 2043 times)

Cycling buzzards...
« on: 09 September, 2019, 12:56:03 pm »
Anyone else, on a ride, count buzzards or any other birds?  Yesterday's 110km ride to Hungerford was a buzzard record of five, for me.  Two of these seen as a pair.  I also happened to witness around 200+ house matins, on some farm buildings - gathering for migration possibly...
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #1 on: 09 September, 2019, 01:18:08 pm »
Never bothered counting buzzards - we have lots. Kites and migratory egrets, though, yes.  We usually have two or three kites over the fields near here.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Auntie Helen

  • 6 Wheels in Germany
Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #2 on: 09 September, 2019, 01:20:16 pm »
Buzzards are really common here in the Niederrhein, I guess I see at least one every commute (4km).

We still count storks - loads in NL but relatively rare round here still.
My blog on cycling in Germany and eating German cake – http://www.auntiehelen.co.uk


T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #3 on: 09 September, 2019, 02:27:23 pm »
Storks are common as get out here.  The small birds are suffering, though - I've only seen one pair of Yellowhammers this year, for example.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #4 on: 09 September, 2019, 03:01:01 pm »
yep, don't count red kites as normally loads -  but always good to see as they're a real success story of reintroduction.  Buzzards are not that numerous, but I normally see a least one or two.  The other day I had one take off from an oak, and call loudly,  just as I cycled beneath, but have had them sitting in an isolated hedge-tree by the road, not 'batting an eyelid' as I cycled (stealth riding?) underneath.
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
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Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #5 on: 09 September, 2019, 03:03:45 pm »
yep, don't count red kites as normally loads -  but always good to see as they're a real success story of reintroduction.  Buzzards are not that numerous, but I normally see a least one or two.

In Devon buzzards are as common as sparrows
And don't get me started on the killer buzzards of Hatherleigh
I'm always charmed and delighted to see a kite on a ride: they are such loverly movers compared to buzzards

Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #6 on: 09 September, 2019, 06:50:08 pm »
...
In Devon buzzards are as common as sparrows
...

I haven't seen a sparrow around here for ages...
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Pingu

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Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #7 on: 09 September, 2019, 10:08:16 pm »
We count buzzards on fence posts when we're driving on Frenck autoroutes  :thumbsup:

Up here they're so common that it's remarked upon if we don't see any. Red kites do get counted thobut.

Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #8 on: 16 September, 2019, 03:35:24 pm »
In descending order of sitings, from here in South Wales.

Kites - spotted sometimes when commuting (that's me, not the birds) depending on route, very frequently on weekend rides north and west. Sometimes in large numbers if I'm passing one of the numerous red kite feeding stations at the right time.
Buzzards - not unusual on commutes, not unusual on weekend rides, but rarely more than one or two.
Peregrines - they nest atop my office but I don't think I've seen them this year
Kestrels. I don't remember ever seeing them round here though they were top of the list when I grew up in Lincolnshire.

The buzzards are crafty. They stay sitting on posts if you don't get too near, even if you stop, then fly off just as you get the camera out but before you're ready to take the photograph. I do like the un-bird-like noises they sometimes make. Just in the breeding season (their's not mine), maybe.

I've seen a sparrowhawk twice. Once swooping through the back garden, and once on the back of a garden chair in the back garden, tugging with its beak at something bloody between its talons.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #9 on: 16 September, 2019, 04:37:02 pm »
Buzzards are common here, sparrowhawks not common but frequent enough to see far more than two, kites however are rare and I've only seen peregrines once. No egrets, storks or emus.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #10 on: 17 September, 2019, 09:56:11 pm »
We rarely see Red Kite, despite a successful reintrodution in the Derwent Valley, just over the fell. 
We rarely see Buzzard, although there are plenty in Allendale, just over another fell

We do see a lot of Red Grouse, and gamekeepers.

Succesive governments, and Defra, cannot see a link between these facts.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Cycling buzzards...
« Reply #11 on: 18 September, 2019, 07:59:26 am »
I have a Scots chum who is on the side of the gamekeepers and toffee-nosed gits who employ them. "Good for the local economy".  I'd have ditched the Tory bugger years ago if we hadn't been friends for over 50 years.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight