Birthday Buzzard

It wasn't really a new year's resolution, more a notion to look more at what's on the doorstep. It's surprising what is stowed in the too-mundane-to-bother-with file, that really shouldn't be. Many gems are routinely passed-by in the car on the way to what are thought to be more exotic locations further afield.

Out of this thinking (yes, I know, me think? It's just not natural)came a list of subjects that I really ought to get to know better. Some natural, some man-made. Included among the ever-growing list of things to do are birds, mostly common species and a few less so.

Getting to know some of the birds better will be achieved by simply sticking my nose to the window and watching what goes on in the garden. And others by wandering out along the local lanes and seeing what's what.

Two for starters; the good old wren and the common old buzzard.

I've overlooked wren's as a subject for far too long, it might have something to do with the fact that they can be a nightmare to untangle from mist-nets when bird-ringing and have attained a nuisance status in my tiny brain because of this. However, if one visits our garden I now take the chance to watch and paint it, the more I see of them the more fascinating they have become for me.

We found the buzzard about three hundred yards from our house, during a birthday boy stroll this weekend. Normally we see them soaring over the house (an unusual sight in itself a few years past). Discovering one perched on fenceposts that enclosed a horsefield was too good an opportunity to miss. As we watched, it became clear that is wasn't resting, but hunting. Every so often the buzzard flew down to the horse-cropped turf, then back to a post. It wasn't clear if these lunges were successful as we didn't see it returning with any prey in it's talons. But, it was clearly going for any worms drawn to the surface by the heavy plodding of the horses and was using the posts as a vantage point to watch for any movement. I knew that worms and beetles were a big part of a buzzard's diet, but it was the first time I had seen one observing the actions of another beast to inadvertently aid them in catching their lunch. 

So normal blog service is nearly resumed, though I still have the odd dream about Orcs. Ranting may return.