Animals in your garden

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That's a very handsome partridge! :)

For some reason we've seen loads of buzzards killing wood pidgeons on our road recently. So bizarre!
 
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That's a very handsome partridge! :)

For some reason we've seen loads of buzzards killing wood pidgeons on our road recently. So bizarre!
Do Buzzards in England actually kill other animals? Here in Texas they only eat what something else has killed whether it be by auto or some other animal.
 

zigs

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We've never seen a buzzard kill anything, they like gliding about a lot, but not seen them drop like a Sparrowhawk.

Found a Sparrowhawk pecking a blackbird's brains out in the pill box :eek:

Been feeding the butterfly maple syrup and raspberries today :)

50723
 
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Do Buzzards in England actually kill other animals? Here in Texas they only eat what something else has killed whether it be by auto or some other animal.

Yup, one killed a pidgeon right as Ian was driving by! Big cloud of feathers :oops:

We've never seen a buzzard kill anything, they like gliding about a lot, but not seen them drop like a Sparrowhawk.

We usually only see them gliding about here, it's so weird that we've seen them eating their kill on our road twice in just a few days!
 
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Yup, one killed a pidgeon right as Ian was driving by! Big cloud of feathers :oops:



We usually only see them gliding about here, it's so weird that we've seen them eating their kill on our road twice in just a few days!
AhHa. I have figured it out. I checked out Wikipedia for English Buzzards and come to find out that an English Buzzard is a Hawk in the US. Hawks are predators and catch, kill and eat their prey. An American Buzzard is a carrion eater or in other words a cleaner upper of roadkill. Now I guess the question is does the UK have any carrion eating birds and what are they called? And do they look like American buzzards? Pic is of Turkey Buzzards aka Texas Love Birds or Texas Parakeets
50725
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AhHa. I have figured it out. I checked out Wikipedia for English Buzzards and come to find out that an English Buzzard is a Hawk in the US. Hawks are predators and catch, kill and eat their prey. An American Buzzard is a carrion eater or in other words a cleaner upper of roadkill. Now I guess the question is does the UK have any carrion eating birds and what are they called? And do they look like American buzzards? Pic is of Turkey Buzzards aka Texas Love Birds or Texas ParakeetsView attachment 50725.

Ah I see, that clarifies things! Here in the UK I think some crows are carrion eaters, but I'm not sure which other birds are.
 
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Ah I see, that clarifies things! Here in the UK I think some crows are carrion eaters, but I'm not sure which other birds are.
Here the only raptor or bird of prey that feeds on carrion is the Mexican Eagle or Caracara. They are often seen in the company of our buzzards feeding on a road kill deer or hog. We have crows and ravens that also feed on carrion but to a much lessor extent than do buzzards. As for hawks we have them from sparrow sized to eagle sized and they capture everything from mice to fawns to small deer. For some reason the eagles here, both Golden and Bald, feed mainly on fish that they capture in our lakes and rivers.
 
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Yes, most of the Crow family, Rooks, Ravens, Jackdaws, Crows and Magpies.



No.
I googled Texas hawk images and English buzzard images. You will be astounded at the likeness they have with each other. And having lived all over Texas during the past 70+ years I have never seen a hawk eating carrion. I wonder why? Perhaps there isn't that much carrion for everyone to go around?
 
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Vultures (aka Buzzards) are carrion eaters. Without a healthy population of vultures we'd be knee-deep in road kill and the smell would offend a skunk!
We see vultures daily, soaring overhead and catching the thermals. They occasionally drop down into our pasture area, and we know that there is a dead "something" there that they clean up.
Zigs, I am reluctant to disagree with a knowledgeable, experienced man who rebuilds masonry, but I think what is in your photo is a hawk. Vultures fly with a V shape wing pattern
50755

while hawks have a straight wing pattern in flight
50756


And that is my ornithology input for the day!
 

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