I was stalking a small flock of White Wagtails at Tempelhof, a virtually impossible task when you are in a flat, grassy lawn area. For some reason I paused and looked behind me and was surprised to see a Common Buzzard in the grass a couple dozen meters away from me. Unfortunately, the sun was behind the buzzard and I despaired of getting a decent shot with the bad backlighting. Instead of even trying to fight the sun I decided to do a loop around the bird, which looked to be feeding on something, with the hope that I could get the sun at my back and the buzzard in front of me.
Much to my amazement, my strategy worked. The buzzard paid me no mind and as I gradually closed on it I couldn’t believe my luck. Not only was a raptor cooperating for close, on-the-ground pictures but it was eating shish kebob! Who knew meat on a stick was in the diet of Buteo buteo?
I took over two hundred pictures of this most accommodating of Common Buzzards and the bird really never showed any nervousness at my presence. It was an awesome experience and one that I wish that everyone could have! Enjoy the shots and keep an eye out for buzzards eating barbecue leftovers…
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There was a Redtail at Ann Arbor’s arboretum who was also very tame and could often be approached to within a few feet. However, his eating habits were not so much focussed on fast food. He very much preferred killing squirrels and then ripping their guts out down and gulping them down – on the ground, on one of the pathways, a mere feet away from visitors.
If ever you want to teach the principle of natural selection to small kids – go there!