Buzzards Becoming A Pain!
By Darkwing
@Darkwing (21583)
August 22, 2007 8:25pm CST
I don't know where they are exactly, but there are two buzzards, or at least it sounds like two, at the bottom of the garden somewhere. I hear them every morning, about twenty minutes before dawn, obviously waiting for the first light to come. They are distinctive by their high-pitched "meow" call, so I know they're buzzards.
Last year, I found a dead, baby rabbit in my garden, minus its eyes, and with some mutilation to its rear undercarriage. Around it was a circle of its fur. I couldn't for the life of me think how it got there, but I spoke with my neighbour in the downstairs flat, and he said he heard a kind of screech but didn't think any more of it. Still, I couldn't fathom how it got there.
Then the calls started coming before early light, and I began to piece two and two together. Then, about a month ago, I went up the garden to hang my washing, and there was a mass of blackbird or crow feathers, but not a single other bird part... no bones, nothing. Well, there was a new cat in the neighbourhood, who took to creeping around under the hedge at the front of the flat, so I shooed it away, thinking what a horrible beast it was, killing off the garden birds. Then, the following week, dove feathers, in my downstairs neighbour's garden, in the same pattern, but quite close to the building... just feathers, nothing more.
This was playing on my mind a bit... so many creatures being pounced upon in the garden. Then, it suddenly dawned on me. Next door has three or four very tall birch trees in his garden, and I wondered if the buzzards were perching there, waiting for an opportunity to swoop on these poor, unsuspecting animals and birds as they fed. I know it's nature, but I wish I could find a way to scare the buzzards off. I was worried on Friday, when I went out, and met a friend coming in the gate. We spotted a baby bluet1t on the path, apparently unable to fly. He was trying to hide in the garden plants, obviously afraid of something, and all I could think of was the buzzards, but she and I both agreed that to pick it up and try to rescue it would probably kill it from fright. So we had to go and leave it hopping around.
How can we protect these little creatures from the big, bad buzzards? Does anybody know how to deter them, other than getting my neighbour to cut his trees back drastically?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
24 Aug 07
Another difference between hawks and buzzards is that buzzards do not have feathers on their heads, this is so that when they poke their head into a carcass the blood and other things do not stick to their head. Maybe in your country they call hawks buzzards. They are both raptors and are somewhat related but not the same animal.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
•
24 Aug 07
No, we have hawks as well, but your buzzards are most definitely larger than ours, lol. There is a definite difference. If you look up an English Buzzard on the web, you will find that my picture is one of those. Thank you for all your information though. It's very helpful.
Brightest Blessings.
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
23 Aug 07
Another thing to consider is that buzzards are birds that use sight to fly by. Since you are experiencing them at night I would more inclined to think that the predators ore owls instead of buzzards. The picture that you have is definitately of a hawk and not a buzzard.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
•
23 Aug 07
I'm sorry, but I have to beg to differ. The picture is an English Country Garden Buzzard, and I'm not experiencing them at night. I hear them from twenty minutes before dawn and they swoop on the garden birds at dawn. I know an owl when I hear one and indeed, we have an owl around here too... a screech owl. He, however, is the other side of the road, out front.
Brightest Blessings.
@jungle_girl (138)
• Philippines
23 Aug 07
I won't be as bold as to identify the raptors that are living next to your house. But I wouldn't call them bad.
It's either you sacrifice the raptors, that are more threatened, or sacrifice the rabbits. They won't kill more than they need.
But maybe you can try broadcasting calls of larger raptors. That may help ward of the birds living next to you.
@Darkwing (21583)
•
23 Aug 07
Jungle Girl, I don't get rabbits in my garden, as there is chicken wire all around and no evidence of them having burrowed underneath. I completely searched the perimeter of the garden for how it got there, three times, but came to the conclusion that it was dropped by a bird of prey. Then the meowing calls started to come. They are buzzards, and the rabbit was dropped. They don't attack larger animals, just garden birds. Foxes and badgers roam free in my garden, because the come from the field at the back.
Brightest Blessings.