The buzzards’ favourite perch
As I walk through the wood, an adult buzzard flies off low among the trees from its perch on the large broken tree trunk that guards the way to the sparrowhawk nest. It is soon circling higher up, calling constantly. Its mate joins in, heard but unseen. There must be a nest nearby. I gingerly increase my pace towards the sparrowhawk clearing, not wanting to either disturb the buzzards further or fall flat on my face.
It’s only a small clearing but it is absolutely ablaze with life now – blue, great and coal tits, a party of long-tailed tits working their way through the rowan and beech, wrens in the ferny undergrowth, a nuthatch scurrying down a thin birch trunk, a juvenile bird (possibly a chiffchaff, but I can’t be sure from this distance) sunning itself on a branch, and an adult that I frustratingly can’t ID at the time, but later realise was a spotted flycatcher, implying that they are breeding here, which is good news for a bird that declined by nearly 90% between 1967 and 2010 (https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/species-focus/spotted-flycatcher). It seems that we were right and the sparrowhawks have well and truly fledged, leaving their nest permanently empty and the clearing newly available to other species. But, suddenly, there’s a faint but rapidly approaching raptor ‘feed me’ call, the little birds go quiet, and two sparrowhawks burst into the clearing, one chasing the other. They execute a quick circuit and are gone. The little birds resume their activities, although they are possibly somewhat less relaxed now.
A few minutes later, there is a whistling begging call, this time from behind me, and the clearing falls silent once more. This must be the young buzzard – perhaps it too has recently left the nest and that’s why the adults are exceptionally territorial and vocal today. I decide to go, tiptoeing – metaphorically, at least – past the buzzards’ trigger point, cherishing the lovely experience of 40 minutes spent in a passerine-packed, sunlit woodland glade with raptors fore and aft. It may be next year before I am back here again, but the memory will keep me going until then.