Buzzards taking game

[Mark White 25]

people that do hunt with owls will normally hunt with eagle owls but as they are to slow at flying and to stand a chance with the masses would need to increase there speed or falconry would need to be a night sport I am aware birds can and do take down things that are not the norm but we are taking wild buzzards which are the norm and are not capble of taking much more then a poult which we seem to agree with. total agree temp will make a bird I fly a redtail in her 3rd season she took a muntjac down and took on a fox which she let go which I was very happy with as they have teeth lol she is a great bird but she does not take hare yet and does not bother giveing them a second glance she never had any thing bad with one either maybe this year.

[Lab 10,979]

not wanting to sound like a arse buts owls do not return back to a pen what crap I have seen them or seen the after-marth the following morning in a month in one pen I remember well we lost over 50 in less then a month due to a tawny owl on average it was killing 5 to 7 a night we even put a camera up in the end just to make sure it was a tawny and not some thing else coming in as well. agree buzzards kill poults and will kill a few but normally 1 or 2 at a time. I fly a buzzard and to get it to take a pheasant is hard work unless it gets its self trapped and keeps running in to a fence as it flaps about the buzzard does not want to know and even then adults or youngish poults with tight plumage get away as there feet are not big enough or normally strong enough to hold on. If they have learnt by luck to grab the head then yes they are capable of taking adults and hare but as a falconer to teach this takes a lot of time birds in the wild do not get this as they would starve in the time it takes to self learn this.

Dont worry you dont sound arsey just f*****g silly. I can assure you that owls are not on the keepers "bird to worry about list"...as i've said they can do damage and alot of damage in one night but they seldom reappear night after night. Go and ask how many keepers have been hammered by owls on consequative nights, i think you'll find its not much.

Now your point about the Buzzard not being able to take youngish poults, oh ffs here we go. They murder them with the greatest of ease.... Jesus a Spar can whap a fair dent in a pen of poults and she's alot lighter than a Buzzard. And were not talking about a bird you fly of your wrist here were talking about a wild bird hunting for food!!

[Mark White 25]

not wanting to sound like a arse buts owls do not return back to a pen what crap I have seen them or seen the after-marth the following morning in a month in one pen I remember well we lost over 50 in less then a month due to a tawny owl on average it was killing 5 to 7 a night we even put a camera up in the end just to make sure it was a tawny and not some thing else coming in as well. agree buzzards kill poults and will kill a few but normally 1 or 2 at a time. I fly a buzzard and to get it to take a pheasant is hard work unless it gets its self trapped and keeps running in to a fence as it flaps about the buzzard does not want to know and even then adults or youngish poults with tight plumage get away as there feet are not big enough or normally strong enough to hold on. If they have learnt by luck to grab the head then yes they are capable of taking adults and hare but as a falconer to teach this takes a lot of time birds in the wild do not get this as they would starve in the time it takes to self learn this.

Dont worry you dont sound arsey just f*****g silly. I can assure you that owls are not on the keepers "bird to worry about list"...as i've said they can do damage and alot of damage in one night but they seldom reappear night after night. Go and ask how many keepers have been hammered by owls on consequative nights, i think you'll find its not much.

Now your point about the Buzzard not being able to take youngish poults, oh ffs here we go. They murder them with the greatest of ease.... Jesus a Spar can whap a fair dent in a pen of poults and she's alot lighter than a Buzzard. And were not talking about a bird you fly of your wrist here were talking about a wild bird hunting for food!!

not wanting to sound like a arse buts owls do not return back to a pen what crap I have seen them or seen the after-marth the following morning in a month in one pen I remember well we lost over 50 in less then a month due to a tawny owl on average it was killing 5 to 7 a night we even put a camera up in the end just to make sure it was a tawny and not some thing else coming in as well. agree buzzards kill poults and will kill a few but normally 1 or 2 at a time. I fly a buzzard and to get it to take a pheasant is hard work unless it gets its self trapped and keeps running in to a fence as it flaps about the buzzard does not want to know and even then adults or youngish poults with tight plumage get away as there feet are not big enough or normally strong enough to hold on. If they have learnt by luck to grab the head then yes they are capable of taking adults and hare but as a falconer to teach this takes a lot of time birds in the wild do not get this as they would starve in the time it takes to self learn this.

Dont worry you dont sound arsey just f*****g silly. I can assure you that owls are not on the keepers "bird to worry about list"...as i've said they can do damage and alot of damage in one night but they seldom reappear night after night. Go and ask how many keepers have been hammered by owls on consequative nights, i think you'll find its not much.

Now your point about the Buzzard not being able to take youngish poults, oh ffs here we go. They murder them with the greatest of ease.... Jesus a Spar can whap a fair dent in a pen of poults and she's alot lighter than a Buzzard. And were not talking about a bird you fly of your wrist here were talking about a wild bird hunting for food!!

 

Well as I was a keeper and I have worked for quite a few over my time and found every pen at some point to have been affected by the tawny owl I think I have answered your first question and some of them have been repeated attacks. I have never said buzzards cant take young poults I know they do and can causes more then just one problem as the pheasants will leave the area if disturbed to many times by the time pheasants are about 20 weeks they are off the buzzards menu . Birds that fly off the fist or fly as a trained bird will normally take much larger quarry then a wild bird which if you ask pretty much any falconer will tell you I think my redtail proves that with taking a muntjac and many good redtails will try and take roe yet in the wild they would normally take the fox squirrel which is a lot bigger then our grey ones. Spars are pretty powerful birds for there size but they dont just rely on there size they use speed and the strength in there feet and I would probably say they take the neck and head area unlike buzzards which rely on strength of the feet and because of there size take in the back and shoulder area and then step up to the neck and head giving the pheasant a good chance of getting away if they are a adult. This is my findings over time maybe different to yours.

[paulus 26]

muntjac,fox, roe the sky must turn black and the air become filled with demonic verses when that redtail of yours leaves the fist

[danw 1,748]

funny how every one focuses on buzzards taking pheasants yet they are far worse on partridge if it isn't predation it,s the constant worrying by sitting/soaring over the cover all damned day don,t take long for hooky to f**k a drive.

 

 

Just out of interest Mark how long did you keeper for and why get out?

[Mark White 25]

One other thing buzzards dont leave the guts in they pull them out and leave them at the side and at the start of this it was said the guts have been left in tack head missing or something which is a trait of a tawny owl in my experience

[Mark White 25]

funny how every one focuses on buzzards taking pheasants yet they are far worse on partridge if it isn't predation it,s the constant worrying by sitting/soaring over the cover all damned day don,t take long for hooky to f**k a drive.

 

 

Just out of interest Mark how long did you keeper for and why get out?

funny how every one focuses on buzzards taking pheasants yet they are far worse on partridge if it isn't predation it,s the constant worrying by sitting/soaring over the cover all damned day don,t take long for hooky to f**k a drive.

 

 

Just out of interest Mark how long did you keeper for and why get out?

 

 

broke my back plain and simple cant be doing all all that bending in and out of the rearing pens I worked on 5 estates in total over 9 years started at the bottom and worked up to keeper I still help out on a estate as and when needed. I now do most forms of hunting other then running dogs

[Mark White 25]

muntjac,fox, roe the sky must turn black and the air become filled with demonic verses when that redtail of yours leaves the fist

muntjac,fox, roe the sky must turn black and the air become filled with demonic verses when that redtail of yours leaves the fist

 

Take a look on you tube or go to the international falconry forum and have a look at some of the posts for redtails the Americans are the best flyer of redtails then come back with that whistling face

[danw 1,748]

funny how every one focuses on buzzards taking pheasants yet they are far worse on partridge if it isn't predation it,s the constant worrying by sitting/soaring over the cover all damned day don,t take long for hooky to f**k a drive.

 

 

Just out of interest Mark how long did you keeper for and why get out?

funny how every one focuses on buzzards taking pheasants yet they are far worse on partridge if it isn't predation it,s the constant worrying by sitting/soaring over the cover all damned day don,t take long for hooky to f**k a drive.

 

 

Just out of interest Mark how long did you keeper for and why get out?

 

 

broke my back plain and simple cant be doing all all that bending in and out of the rearing pens I worked on 5 estates in total over 9 years started at the bottom and worked up to keeper I still help out on a estate as and when needed. I now do most forms of hunting other then running dogs

 

sorry to hear about your back injury

[Mark White 25]

dont be sorry about my back I have a great life if you forget about the pain lol

Edited July 3, 2012 by Mark White

[reddawn 2,173]

[Mark White 25]

 

you laughing because I broke my back or laughing as i have a great life

[jasper65 6]

I was shocked but I can catagoricaly say that Buzzards will 1 Million % take full grown Pheasants . I live on a sporting estate with a pen litteraly about 250 yds from the back of my aviaries, the wife takes a short cut round the track past the pen and also along the edge of the woods where the feeders are stood to take the kids to school, many times me and also the wife has seen a Buzzard fly out from the maze cover or near to the feeders where a carcass of a Pheasant lays.

 

Ok we can all say the Pheasant was poorly or dead already but this is not the case, there's always a scattering of feathers where the Pheasant was first taken near the feeder, there may also be a couple more where the struggle persisted before it finally met its maker.

 

also the second year we moved here we had some black Leghorn chickens running free range, one evening I went to put them up as usualy but was one short! I finally found it behind the back hedge which was a classic Hawk kill, plent of feathers plucked in different area's before I finally found the carcass, the best bit is the carcass was left and a Buzzard returned for it later...

 

If anyone had asked me this a few years ago about wild Buzzards taking Pheasants I would have laughed my butt off but I have now educated myself after seeing the aftermath first hand ....

[reddawn 2,173]

 

you laughing because I broke my back or laughing as i have a great life

 

 

any why has the whole world gotta revolve aroon you

[Mark White 25]

I was shocked but I can catagoricaly say that Buzzards will 1 Million % take full grown Pheasants . I live on a sporting estate with a pen litteraly about 250 yds from the back of my aviaries, the wife takes a short cut round the track past the pen and also along the edge of the woods where the feeders are stood to take the kids to school, many times me and also the wife has seen a Buzzard fly out from the maze cover or near to the feeders where a carcass of a Pheasant lays.

 

Ok we can all say the Pheasant was poorly or dead already but this is not the case, there's always a scattering of feathers where the Pheasant was first taken near the feeder, there may also be a couple more where the struggle persisted before it finally met its maker.

 

also the second year we moved here we had some black Leghorn chickens running free range, one evening I went to put them up as usualy but was one short! I finally found it behind the back hedge which was a classic Hawk kill, plent of feathers plucked in different area's before I finally found the carcass, the best bit is the carcass was left and a Buzzard returned for it later...

 

If anyone had asked me this a few years ago about wild Buzzards taking Pheasants I would have laughed my butt off but I have now educated myself after seeing the aftermath first hand ....

 

Ok I will take this on board that buzzards do take adult pheasants although I have not heard of this on many occasions maybe as there are more of them now or there other food rabbit is not quite so readily available due to larger numbers they have learnt to take pheasants a bit more often then I have given them credit for.