Buzzard feeding fledgling on the wing?

[Slarti]

I kept hearing an unusual bird cry over the last couple of days. Like a raptor of some sort.

Today I saw them above the garden and managed to get my phone out and point it in roughly the right direction.

Not a brilliant result, but

It looks as if one is following the other and the larger lead bird seems to do acrobatics to turn its claws to the one following.
Parent and child or pair bonding?

Oh, and the cry does sound like the recording on the RSPB website at https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildl ... index.aspx

Slarti

[Breelander]

looks as if one is following the other and the larger lead bird seems to do acrobatics to turn its claws to the one following.
Parent and child or pair bonding?

Neither, I suspect. The breeding season is over and the parents have long since stopped feeding the fledglings. It's more likely territorial behaviour, the larger bird defending its territory from an intruder. The larger bird leading is described as 'engage and escort' behaviour, while if that fails to see off an intruder the next level of aggression is called....

Attack and chase
Almost invariably, an intruder may appear to show some reluctance to leave a territory... During close encounters the adult will usually lash out with its talons, the intruder responding likewise.

https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/u ... _19_45.pdf

See Fig. 5 in this pdf document, it looks very similar to what you describe.

[Slarti]

looks as if one is following the other and the larger lead bird seems to do acrobatics to turn its claws to the one following.
Parent and child or pair bonding?

Neither, I suspect. The breeding season is over and the parents have long since stopped feeding the fledglings. It's more likely territorial behaviour, the larger bird defending its territory from an intruder. The larger bird leading is described as 'engage and escort' behaviour, while if that fails to see off an intruder the next level of aggression is called....

Attack and chase
Almost invariably, an intruder may appear to show some reluctance to leave a territory... During close encounters the adult will usually lash out with its talons, the intruder responding likewise.

https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/u ... _19_45.pdf

See Fig. 5 in this pdf document, it looks very similar to what you describe.

Interesting stuff.

I'll have to see how many days it carries on for, and if I can get out with a real camera when I hear them. Phones just don't do it.

Slarti

[Hallucigenia]

I kept hearing an unusual bird cry over the last couple of days. Like a raptor of some sort.

Not a brilliant result, but
Slarti

Hard to tell obviously, but "feels" a bit more red kite than buzzard? Depends where it is, buzzards are more common in the west but have spread pretty much all over the country now, kites are spreading out from hotspots where they've been reintroduced - you can see them by the dozen in places like Oxfordshire. Kites have a more "punchy", whistley voice, whereas buzzards mew rather pathetically.

[swill453]

Hard to tell obviously, but "feels" a bit more red kite than buzzard?

I think red kites have more of an "elbow" in their wings. And the v-shaped tail of course, and I think it looks more like the fan tail of a buzzard.

Scott.

[Slarti]

Hard to tell obviously, but "feels" a bit more red kite than buzzard? Depends where it is, buzzards are more common in the west but have spread pretty much all over the country now, kites are spreading out from hotspots where they've been reintroduced - you can see them by the dozen in places like Oxfordshire. Kites have a more "punchy", whistley voice, whereas buzzards mew rather pathetically.

Far east of mid Essex.

As I say, the picture from the phone is not very good, but the Mk1 eyeball is certain that they are not Red Kites as the tails are fanned and not V shaped.

We have had the odd Red Kite sighting over here and I am told Common Buzzards are regularly seen over fields and forests, though I've never seen one in Essex.

I suspect that Wallasea Island is causing a change to the bird locations as the geese I mentioned in my earlier post were heading that way the other evening.

Slarti