BUZZARD: striking at a running two-legged target

WHEELING and soaring above open country, the buzzard is an expert scavenger of carcasses and hunter of rabbits.

Its large broad wings, circling flight, and brown and white colouring make it easy to recognise as it scans fields or moors for food.

With carrion making up a large part of its diet, dead sheep and lambs are a regular treat but worms are also taken.

Similar in some ways to the rarer red kite, the buzzard's rounded, fan-shaped tail feathers instantly distinguish it from the kite whose tail feathers are shaped in a 'V'.

The buzzard's wingspan is also shorter by some 65cms when compared to the 195cms maximum span of the more majestic kite.

The buzzard is now thought to be the commonest large bird of prey in Scotland and generally down the western side of Britain.

This was probably borne out earlier this year when I spotted two within minutes of leaving my car during a trip to Dartmoor in Devon.

Although the buzzard rarely leaves its native country, two other species do migrate to our shores.

These are the Scandinavia-based Rough-Legged buzzard, partial to lemmings as well as rabbits, and, more rarely, the Honey buzzard.

This feeds on wasp and bee larvae and occasionally arrives here from the Continent after wintering in Africa.

Our own buzzards were almost wiped out in the 1950s due to the decimation of rabbits by myxomatosis, destroying their main food source during the breeding season.

Illegal shooting of buzzards has always been a problem and most crimes of this nature may go unrecorded because they happen in remote places and are quickly concealed.

But the RSPB says that of 37 formally noted shootings of birds of prey last year, 10 victims were buzzards.

Many more buzzards are believed to be killed by poisoned baits or steel spring-traps set on top of posts or sawn-off tree trunks.

In a way, this made a report of a buzzard attacking a jogger in Cumbria all the more interesting.

Were buzzards striking back at last ? Apparently not. Although undoubtedly powerful and capable of inflicting terrible wounds, it seemed this particular buzzard may have escaped from captivity and so had no innate fear of Man.

Still, that must of been of little comfort to the jogger who suffered 15 severe wounds to his head courtesy of his attacker's formidable claws and hooked bill.

A passing motorist found him dazed, battered, and covered in blood. He seems lucky not to have lost an eye.

Talking of buzzards, someone once told me of an incident which occurred after she discarded her Christmas turkey carcass in her back garden.

A "giant chicken" had swooped down and snatched it away, she said. A buzzard more likely.