Birding firsts

[Rob Greenhill]

Well a first for me today,whilst looking for new locations to stake out, Bryan and I spotted a buzzard on a football field,surrounded by thrushes,pied wagtails,and blackbirds, and it was running on the ground,and pulling up worms.Clearly seen with binos,but unfortunatly too far away for the lens.

[Mallimak]

That interesting Rob.

Buzzards are supposed to be scavengers normally feeding on carrion and things like earthworms rather than chasing what we would assume to be likely prey.

However this was shown not to be totally true recently down in Cornwall when horrified birdwatches who had turned up to see a rare Grey Phalarope watch as a buzzard swept it and took it, see the link for a couple of pictures:

Picture perfect swoop for hungry buzzard

[Rob Greenhill]

Indeed Dave,i've also seen buzzards take live prey, but not seen them dig out earth worms though. Thanks for the link.....amazing pics.

[Steven Gourlay]

Thats is pretty strange behaviour, not somthing you see everyday.