Buzzards at the Nest – Part 2 – Fledging

A Single Young Buzzard Survives and Fledges

Following on from our first observation of the Buzzard’s nest and chicks: https://woodcockwood.com/buzzards-at-the-nest/

7th July: It was ten days since we had seen the two downy white heads in the nest. We were now confident only one chick remained. On our last visit on the 1st and 2nd July we only saw one, and that bird had well developed plumage. Its head had lost most if not all of the white down, and at times it was difficult to distinguish between the chick and the adult.

On the 7th July, during the afternoon the female was on duty, guarding the nest. She maintained several positions within four or five metres of the nest.

During late afternoon the young one appeared on the edge of the nest, and from the way it was tugging and pulling, it had a sizeable carcass in the nest. It was good to know it had something substantial to eat.

At the nest by 6.00 AM the following day. It was cold and grey, and nothing happened until 7.20. The female emerged and took up post again, and the male began calling a short distance away, but remained hidden. A short time later the young one emerged and began clambering among the branches several metres from the nest.

The female seemed to give little attention to the young one’s activities. Her focus seemed to be away from the nest watching, although she also spent a lot of time preening.

Perhaps we are used to seeing the wonderful footage of the iconic Osprey, with its large open nest at the top of a tree, where access is easy. This Buzzard’s nest is deeply entangled in the small upper branches of the Corsican Pine. Access seemed difficult and entailed a fair amount of clambering before the bird could mange open flight. At times the adult female seemed as awkward as the young one when moving around.

The position also made our observation challenging. There were limited opportunities to get a clear view of the birds, and the light was often poor. These factors combine to make recognition of the individual birds difficult.

In our case, at this stage, the bird’s behaviour was more important than appearance for identifying which bird was which. The young bird had long periods of persistent and plaintive calling, and it would retreat to the nest quite frequently.

Four days later, on the 12th and 13th July the young bird seemed only to visit the nest to feed. It was now flying between trees, but still calling plaintively while perched.

In spite of the call it was now difficult to find the bird. It remained well hidden in the upper branches of the pines, and moved around quite a bit. It may be sometime before we see all three free flying together in the open sky.

“By mid-July the breeding season is effectively over for the Buzzard …. Adults now become less conspicuous, retiring more into cover, with little need to exert themselves on territorial matters. The breeding season has now finished as well for most other species and the songsters have long since fallen quiet. It is now almost silent countryside, the wailing of the hungry juvenile Buzzards carry far. These are, to my mind, one of the most evocative summer sounds in Buzzard country.” pp126

Peter Dare “The Life of Buzzards”

The young bird is likely to stay with its parents until late September. Between now and then the parents will continue to feed it, but it will be learning to hunt for itself. It will then leave the territory, perhaps join other juveniles for a time, and begin the search for a territory of its own, be this a new site, or more likely replacing an adult of an existing pair that has died.

See: https://woodcockwood.com/our-go-to-books/

The Common Buzzard