Buzard Buzard everywhere !!

[Quist]

Buzzards are quite territorial so, if you have a pair on your shoot, they will tend to try and drive off others, other raptors and even their own young when grown.

They don't feed every day and the number of losses you could put down to them over the course of a year is probably quite small.

Since you can't legally do anything to drive them off, the sensible thing to do is protect yourself.

Put a cap net over the pens until you new birds can properly fly and make sure that there is lots of groundcover and understory for your birds to hide in.

Put out rabbits, crows and other vermin for them. Every one of those they eat is a pheasant less.

Warn the guns on shoot day briefings so that some silly sod doesn't mistake one for a hen pheasant.

You will lose some birds to them. Pheasants are even more stupid than sheep and will go out into the middle of open spaces to feed. However, they will soon learn that Buzzards are to be avoided and hug the cover more.

Keep up the predator control, you can still lose more in a single night to a fox or mink than a buzzard will take in a year.

[tigger]

Our shoot is full of them buddy they regularly sit near the release pens, there are numerous pairs in such a small area it's unreal

[anser2]

Gamekeeper 1960 The original birds were fitted with radio tags and released in the Sherringham area to study the homing in released raptors and were never intended to remain in the wild after the study finished. The RSPB had nothing to do with the release it was scientist from the ITE. However the birds wandered widely about for a few years across North Norfolk before most settled in the Swanton Novers area where they were welcomed and fed by the local gamekeepers. However the small numbers released ( 17 ) cannot account for the present Norfolk population of probably 300 pairs as they do not breed until 2-3 years old and on average only raise 2 chicks a year. Common buzzards have spread across England to regain their former range before they were exterminated by keepers a hundred years ago in the eastern counties. I am a very keen shooter from game to wildfowl and pigeons , but welcome the return of these wonderful birds that add so much interest to the Norfolk landscape.

 

 

 

As you say common buzzards are not a real problem when it comes to predating gamebirds. They may take the odd one , but after 1000s of hours studying them ( its my job ) I have yet to see one take a gamebird of any sort indeed its uncommon for them to take birds thought he odd pair will target crows , rooks and jays, they mainly feed on rabbits , voles , worms and beetles , plus carrion. I have seen them working ground after a shoot and find and eat dead pheasants. In my area Swanton Novers – Sennowe Park – Holt the keepers have no problems with the birds , but the shoots have plenty of holding cover so I would suggest you increase the amount of game crops in areas where you want to hold the birds and this should stop them wandering.

 

We have three species of buzzard here in Norfolk. The main one it the common buzzard , but in winter we have rough legged buzzards from the Arctic and in summer the very rare , honey buzzards ( an insect feeding raptor

[gamekeeper1960]

Hi anser2,I have to say I agree with a lot of what you say but also have to say I think that an explosion of buzzards has more to do with the work of man rather than nature,I can say that up until five/six years ago the only buzzards seen around here where over wintering rough legged,but since then they are now every where,and as you say if buzzards are realy lucky if at most have two chicks reach maturity,so the amout there are now if it were down to nature there must be enough natural food of then to eat! Around here we dont have that many rabbits, voles, etc to keep this spices going before they start to run out of natural food and either starving to death or going after released game birds mor and more and of cause if they are eating all the voles,rabbits,mice then what are the kestel, little owls,barn and tawny owls( Little owls we used to have many pairs around here now I havent seen one of a year or so! I know people will through their hands in the air and shout there is no conection but if a larger species is fighting for the same pray then the strongest will survive)that are in decline going to eat? so maybe its the eating of game birds that are being released, and I know that people will say that they only released for the rich to enjoy but I repute this as there are now! more people from working classes shooting game in this country than any other.So it is nothing unusual for me to see seven or eight flying round our woods and when they are every thing hides apart from the crows that tend to go mad!. It might be worth stopping and talk to the many gamekeepers in my area (south of yours)because I can assure you I have,all saying they are! having a problem. Yes no one is denying it nice to see birds of pray and that goes for gamekeepers aswell as it show that the country side is in a good shape but my worry is what happens if this gets out of control how are we to address the balance,or do we just let nature take its corse? because if we had then buzzards would already have been here if they've not been here for around 100 years and would have been no need to release buzzards in the first place.

 

Dave.

[anser2]

In a modern society any form of raptor control is just not going to happen and indeed I think we are going to struggle to hang onto crow control in the future especially as ravens are now starting to breed in Norfolk. The public outcry if raptors start getting shot will do huge damage to shooting interests and if we are careful we will end up in the same boat as the Dutch and some other European countries where almost no predator control is allowed and they have stopped all game rearing.

 

As for mans involvement in buzzards returning to their former territories in Norfolk is quite small. This expansion eastwards and southwards is happening all across the country not just in Norfolk. Little owls have declined in recent years , but that is likely to have more to do with the general decline in farmland birds due to modern farming methods than completion with buzzards. Go to the river Wensum Valley and there plenty of little owls , kestrels and plenty of buzzards. In my woods we frequently see up to 17 buzzards in the air at once in winter and we have three breeding pairs and 13 breeding pairs within 5 miles. We also have little , barn and tawny owls , plus 3 pairs of kestrels , one pair of honey buzzards , 5 pairs of sparrowhawks and one pair of hobby and two pairs of marsh harriers breeding close by. For the past 20 years we have been surveying the breeding song birds and while some birds such as willow tits have declined others such as marsh tits have increased and others like bullfinch have declined and then increased to be more common than before. So overall the large increase in raptors has had no overall effect on the breeding bird population. We have good habitat giving plenty of cover and food for birds and a very healthy wild game population or partridges and pheasants.

One of the major problem I often see where there is a raptors issue ( which is nearly always marsh harriers not buzzards ) is reared game birds with no experience of predators being held in badly sited release pens or allowed to go free in areas of unsuitable cover.

 

 

 

Habitat is the key when it comes to problems with game birds , not raptors. Get that balance between cover and natural food right and you will hold your game. The mere fact that farms today are dotted with bird feeders is that there is very little natural food on most modern farms. In the old days the only feeders was in the coverts to hold the birds for a shoot day. Today they need artificial feeding to survive. Perhaps the way forward is for guns to be content with smaller bags and instead of spending the money on rearing and feeding and spend it on habitat improvements on the shoot.

[gamekeeper1960]

In a modern society any form of raptor control is just not going to happen and indeed I think we are going to struggle to hang onto crow control in the future especially as ravens are now starting to breed in Norfolk. The public outcry if raptors start getting shot will do huge damage to shooting interests and if we are careful we will end up in the same boat as the Dutch and some other European countries where almost no predator control is allowed and they have stopped all game rearing.

 

As for mans involvement in buzzards returning to their former territories in Norfolk is quite small. This expansion eastwards and southwards is happening all across the country not just in Norfolk. Little owls have declined in recent years , but that is likely to have more to do with the general decline in farmland birds due to modern farming methods than completion with buzzards. Go to the river Wensum Valley and there plenty of little owls , kestrels and plenty of buzzards. In my woods we frequently see up to 17 buzzards in the air at once in winter and we have three breeding pairs and 13 breeding pairs within 5 miles. We also have little , barn and tawny owls , plus 3 pairs of kestrels , one pair of honey buzzards , 5 pairs of sparrowhawks and one pair of hobby and two pairs of marsh harriers breeding close by. For the past 20 years we have been surveying the breeding song birds and while some birds such as willow tits have declined others such as marsh tits have increased and others like bullfinch have declined and then increased to be more common than before. So overall the large increase in raptors has had no overall effect on the breeding bird population. We have good habitat giving plenty of cover and food for birds and a very healthy wild game population or partridges and pheasants.

One of the major problem I often see where there is a raptors issue ( which is nearly always marsh harriers not buzzards ) is reared game birds with no experience of predators being held in badly sited release pens or allowed to go free in areas of unsuitable cover.

 

 

 

Habitat is the key when it comes to problems with game birds , not raptors. Get that balance between cover and natural food right and you will hold your game. The mere fact that farms today are dotted with bird feeders is that there is very little natural food on most modern farms. In the old days the only feeders was in the coverts to hold the birds for a shoot day. Today they need artificial feeding to survive. Perhaps the way forward is for guns to be content with smaller bags and instead of spending the money on rearing and feeding and spend it on habitat improvements on the shoot.

 

 

I guess if I said white was white,you would say it is black! So there is very little point in my repling to your comments! though it did make me laugh when you said you are involved with the raptor release program and breeding song birds !

 

 

Dave.

[mark g]

I guess if I said white was white,you would say it is black! So there is very little point in my repling to your comments! though it did make me laugh when you said you are involved with the raptor release program and breeding song birds !

 

 

Dave.

i think the bird and raptor friends vastly underestimate the extent that gameshooting supports these species, our shoot provides around 75 tons per year of grain plus 36 acres of maize sunflower and millet available to birds during the hardest parts of the year, during the last 2 hard winters i have seen buzzards eating each other, i suspect that cannibalism would be more common if there were no pheasants or partridge released and dare i say, i have never seen one acre of cover crop or an acre of woodland planted by the so called conservationists of these species, if they wish to criticize they should put thier money where thier mouth is and help to create habitat and winter food

[gamekeeper1960]

i think the bird and raptor friends vastly underestimate the extent that gameshooting supports these species, our shoot provides around 75 tons per year of grain plus 36 acres of maize sunflower and millet available to birds during the hardest parts of the year, during the last 2 hard winters i have seen buzzards eating each other, i suspect that cannibalism would be more common if there were no pheasants or partridge released and dare i say, i have never seen one acre of cover crop or an acre of woodland planted by the so called conservationists of these species, if they wish to criticize they should put thier money where thier mouth is and help to create habitat and winter food

Hi mark, I totally agree with you gamekeepers must feed more wild birds than any one else in this country with the tons of food put down every year, funny thing is I've just been on the BTOs website and it states that the common buzzard is not a native of the eastern counties so who am I to believe I've alway had my thoughts as to why a lot of people are againts game shooting and I'm sure the answer is a class one and I'm sure that others believe that its a sport only for the landed gentery which is far from where we are now, more working class people shoot than any other. The other thing that has got on my nerve is the bad publicty thats been given to shooters of all kind just reasently in fact if you look at the evidence more people are killed through the game of football yet there has never been a call to ban it weired ,People would rather forget that we come from hunter gatherers and some people still get a kick out of collecting their own food me included !!! Sorry rant over I'm off to bed.

[woodentermite]

i would suggest just leaving them alone as a feeding station could just attract more. leave a few dead rabbits on the higher ground of the shoot but no feeding stations. also if you leave a t-bar with a rabbit draped over it the antis could also get a bit wary.