Buzzards on a rabbit carcass

A Buzzard Buteo buteo that I photographed in 2014.

I have been concentrating on Buzzards this last few days – as well as Kingfishers – in previous years I have had quite a lot of success by baiting them with dead game, rabbits and pheasant although I think that rabbit is probably more successful. I have been ready for this project for almost a year afterI first acquired some rabbits again which is always a problem. I purchased a dozen from a local butcher who deals in game and they have been in the freezer since then.

The plan was to put a rabbit carcass out in front of the caravan hide and then wait for the buzzards or a buzzard to discover the free offering. I was thrilled when I went back the next day and discovered that the first one had been eaten and I presumed, after inspecting what remained, that a buzzard was responsible. But it could have been Ravens, possibly but I doubted it Most of the remains had been cleared up by the local foxes who I see very often around the area. I could see that some of the rabbit had been carried to a high trunk and then eaten and foxes would not be able to reach there. I was pretty confident that a Buzzard was responsible. So what next? Without delay, I put out another carcass but this time I placed it on the trunk having presumed that the Buzzard that had visited before would accept the rabbit in this high place. However, I am pretty sure that Buzzards are clever enough to reason that it isn't natural for dead rabbits to be lying 6 feet off the ground! In fact in my attempts in previous years one would only came down to the rabbit when it was on the ground in a more natural position. On one occasion then I watched an individual sit for several hours on the telegraph pole just above looking at it on the log below and not until I moved it the next day did it come down to eat. The other thing that I always do is remove the rabbit when I leave and then put it out again as soon as I arrive. This ensures that I am there when a Buzzard comes to the kill and in this way you can maximise your success rate. If the buzzards feed on the carcass when you are not there, not only do you miss the photo opportunity but you quite quickly run out of rabbits which are not that easy to come by. The day before yesterday I had a very near miss. I had placed the rabbit on the log on arrival, then set up a camera focused on the carcass through the open window. I began to wait and after 2 hours, just as the day started to turn to dusk, a Buzzard came down to the rabbit. I saw it through a chink in the curtain and quickly went to the camera to get a shot…..it had gone! I knew what had happened. Birds of prey are incredibly wary, incredibly intelligent and not very easily fooled. Why had it flown off? Probably because the caravan window was open and things didn't look familiar, in other words it knew that something was different. I am absolutely certain that this was the case because when i went to a bird hide in Bulgaria to photograph eagles and vultures the owner of the hide used drain pipes to simulate long lenses so that when a photographer poked a long lens out of the hide nothing looked different to the birds. With this in mind I have adopted the same technique at my Peregrine Falcon hide which seems to work very well. I decided to make use of the remote facility that I have on my Lumix camera. The Panasonic Lumix camera is packed with up to the minute features and one is the ability to see in real time on the iPad exactly what the camera can see and then take the photo in silent mode. Adjustments can be made in real time as well. So yesterday evening I positioned the camera outside and focused on the rabbit. I went back inside and kept all the doors and curtains closed in the caravan and then just sat back and waited, I wasn't successful – no Buzzard came! Today at around midday I did the same and came very close to success. Eventually the battery power died on the iPad and I decided to call it quits. I packed up and left the caravan only to disturb a Buzzard that was sitting watching from a nearby tree. Who knows how long it had been there and how long it was going to be before it took the plunge but things are moving in the right direction and its just a matter of time for success again this year.