Twiggery-pokery

Common Buzzards (buteo buteo) are fond of carrying and fiddling with bits of trees and other objects early in the nesting season - for nest-building, courtship, or just generally showing off. A favourite trick is to drop something in the hover, then dive and try to catch it - sometimes successfully.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• common
• buzzard
• hawk
• buteo
• raptor
• flying
• flight
• twig
• carrying
• dropping
• catching
• display
• spernal
• spernall
• warwickshire

[joachimdippold]

Cool! What zoom do you use if I may ask? We have buzzards and hawks flying over our garden regularly but with our cheap cam (20x-zoom) all I can tape it a dark spot in the sky!LOL! Nice filming, thanks for sharing! I like these majestectic birds, they are so elegant, excelent video!

[betacygni]

Thanks! The close-ups were obtained by attaching a very long telephoto lens to camera (the camera has interchangeable lenses).

[joachimdippold]

Yes, but I meant what tele, I´m no expert, sorry for the confusion! I meant if you use a 300mm or 400mm tele for example, see? Just to be able to learn, I´m a curious guy!LOL! I know I can´t attach anything onto our cheap cam, but I want to understand the differences of the various zoom-levels nevertheless;-)

[betacygni]

The teles I have used are mainly designed for 35mm SLR cameras, and so need special adapters to fit on video cameras (only those with removable lenses). Focal lengths go upto about 2000mm.

[joachimdippold]

Wow, cool! I think now I have an idea what you mean, thanks for the info! Your slow camera movements look very nice, good work! Looks like a nice place for living with so many birds nearby. If I don´t get on your nerves I have another question: did you happen to film buzzard chicks, also? Or parent buzzards teaching their chicks to fly? I like watching "our" buzzards with their chick but they are too far away for me to see in detail when they circle over our garden...;-)

[betacygni]

I only have film of fledged buzzard "chicks", and nothing which I recall could be interpreted as flight teaching. Maybe they do any teaching well out of sight of the local hobbies!

[KnightsbridgeAce]

Awesome video

[joachimdippold]

Thanks for your answer! Looks like I have more luck. I regularly see "our" buzzards, and I´m happy every year when I see their chick for the first time. They fly together not in formation but close together nevertheless. The chick buzzard always follows the big birds, and especially when there´s much wind one can monitor the parents fly back to support their little one if it get´s "lost". I just love watching them, they are such cool birds! Thanks once again for sharing your detailed clips!

[spelqueka]

Yes,first of all we saw just the two, and then saw another two much much higher.Thanks for your posting, lovely to see.

[betacygni]

Sometimes when you look high above a group you will see a few more.