After a really nice day today which involved breakfast, a walk to the Exe Estuary at Cockwood – the resident Slavonian Grebe was very close in – and a walk back to the car via the Ship Inn and a tour of an amazing garden complete with Grass Snake and incredible grape vines, I rushed out to the caravan hide for the final 2 hours before dusk.  I knew that a Buzzard had come in at 5 yesterday and I am beginning to see a pattern developing.  As I have said repeatedly, it’s pleasant even without birds, the anticipation is palpable, the peace and quiet is always very pleasant and add in a cup off coffee and Classic FM and it’s almost heavenly.  It was just touching 6.30 when suddenly  there it was, the dark, presumed adult Buzzard.  It glided in from behind the gate, landed on the trunk and the bait and remained motionless while it checked for safety. The camera was set up, switched on and adjusted for the light and of course,  pre – focused.  It’s the first time I have had a good look at this bird and it was interesting to see how it differed dramatically from the other that I photographed on Tuesday.  See here. Because Buzzards are so variable, as long as I get good photo’s it will be a simple task to identify individuals. After remaining motionless for exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds, it suddenly picked up the bait with one foot – 3 half frozen day old chicks – held them collectively in it’s talons and flew back to exactly where it had come from.  Brilliant!! Interestingly, the juvenile on Tuesday had spent around 30 minutes clearing up every vestige of anything edible whereas this bird seemed more reluctant to stay around. This had been a great encounter and a real success after many hours without any and at least a dozen visits without any Buzzards whatsoever.

Update:  Tuesday 27 September.

I am pleased to say that my Lumix camera is back from repair – it suddenly stopped working – and I couldn't wait to get out to the caravan hide to use it to capture the Buzzard in flight.   I went just for the last hours of light and saw on the trail cam that the Buzzard had visited 5 time during my absence for a day. vey satisfying. I set the camera up quickly and connected it wirelessly to my iPad, sat down quietly and waited.  I am trying to capture pictures of the Buzzard just as it lands on the bait.  When I am successful it will be a corking shot. I didn't wait long, the darker adult bird came but I missed the opportunity to get it in flight and I had underestimated the size of the bird and most of it was not i the frame of the camera, a bit of a frustration. I did however get one decent photo which is worth posting.  Disappointing really that the photos taken with the Lumix are just not quite as good as with the DSLR but there are so many other things that you can do with the Lumix, it's worth it because you finish up with pictures – albeit of slightly inferior quality – that you would find hard to achieve with the DSLR.  For example, this low perspective shot here. I went back this morning before 8 and didn't have a visit which was disappointing obviously.