A Buzzard Family

We have a pair of resident buzzards who nest each year in the trees at the back of Ormsaigbeg. They can be seen, without fail, every time we walk down the road, wheeling and calling in the sky over the fields or sitting on a fence post or chimney pot.

Buzzards are Britain's most common large bird of prey but we see far more of them than the smaller kestrel. There's plenty of food for them here, from the large rabbit population - only seen in the crofting fields, never in the bleak moorland up the back - to mice, small birds and even insects.

Each year they raise one chick, a noisy, demanding beast who sits on a fence post by the common grazing and shrieks until food is brought. Last summer they did better, raising two, so for much of this winter we have had four buzzards to enjoy. It's been a hard winter for them. When it was snowing and blowing, they seemed very unwilling to take off, however close we came.

Crofters don't seem to mind buzzards as they don't bother their stock, unlike the crows who can be a menace when lambs are born. And buzzards are great for tourism: they look so like golden eagles we have had visitors arrive bubbling with excitement having seen ten eagles on their way into the village.