I have been trying to get the Buzzards to come down to a rabbit carcass  for days and days.  I tried putting the rabbit further up the hill where I had seen one regularly sat on a telegraph pole.  This didn’t seem to work so I left a carcass backon the trunk, well above ground so that the foxes couldn’t get at it. The evening before last when I went to check, as I got to just before the gate, I stopped in my tracks and dived down to the ground because there, on the trunk, was a buzzard!  It had it's back to me and didn’t seem to have seen me approach. This in itself was very unusual, it's usually an impossibility to creep up on a bird of prey.  It was obviously now going to be impossible to get in to the caravan hide without spooking the bird so I lay in the grass deciding what to do next. After several minutes I decided to go back to the car and perhaps come back later but as I stood I could see that the bird had flown off now anyway.  I don’t know if it was ever aware of me or not but it was good to know that it's  happy to come down to the rabbit and eventually I WILL get the photographs I am after.   When I got to the trunk it was mayhem. The half eaten rabbit was on the ground amongst the remains of the sides of the old trunk which had been pulled off.   Two or three sections,  4 feet long had been pulled from the trunk, in fact any rotten wood had been ripped off.  I examined the wood and could see long scratches in characteristic patterns, a clear indication of badger claws with evenly spaced marks an inch or so apart and about half an inch  between.  I have been shown how to check for badgers in the past and these marks are often left on dead logs as they scratch at them or cross over. I am certain that they pulled at the log to get at the peanuts that had fallen down in to the cracks and holes. In fact I had loaded these with peanuts the night before.  It looks as though I am going to be able to put out piles of peanuts and then with a bit of luck, the badgers will come for them and I will be able to photograph them. 

But back to the Buzzards.  I continued with my quest and spent around 4 hours yesterday staring at the screen of my iPad waiting for one to fly in and then get the shot.  Strangely it was a failure and this was compounded when I returned this evening.  As I approached I could see a Buzzard sat on the low fence around 200 yards away but there was a surprise because there was another  Buzzard sat next to the caravan hide and of course, as soon as it caught sight of me, off it flew. I inspected the rabbit remains which had been almost completely consumed now.  I could see where the Buzzard had been sat because of copious white droppings splattered all around. Surely, I will have some success sometime this week.