Every time I see a buzzard circling in the sky, I get a surge of optimism. It is a reminder that nature can bounce back given half a chance. More amazing still, these impressive birds of prey have done it all by themselves, without any protected areas, management plans or finance. All they needed was for us to reduce the level of persecution and they crept back into our view.
Buzzards are often mistaken for eagles with their broad wings and wedge-shaped tail. But they are only half the size of a golden eagle and chunkier than a falcon. Like many birds of prey they often soar, carried high by warm air currents. As the breeding season approaches in spring, they display over their territories with a strange looping flight rather like a roller-coaster on a fairground. Their distinctive mewing call could be mistaken for the sound of a cat.
The common buzzard was indeed a common species in Ireland before the Great Famine but by the 1850s it was reduced to limited numbers along the north coast. The last pair bred in Co Derry in 1886 but shooting by gamekeepers and farmers as well as the widespread use of poison, especially in sheep-farming areas, led to their demise. By 1900 it had become so rare that it was described as only a casual visitor to Ireland.
In the 1950s the buzzard population in Ireland had begun to recover with a handful of nesting pairs in the north. Then myxomatosis, a viral disease infecting rabbits, was intentionally introduced into Britain and Ireland. The rabbit is one of the main prey items of the buzzard and so the species became extinct from Ireland for the second time in the late 1950s due to decimation of the rabbit population.
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Buzzards can feed on a wide variety of prey items but in Britain, voles are a key item that they feed to the chicks in the breeding season. Unlike many small mammals, these chubby little rodents are active during the day when the buzzards hunt. Until recently, however, the only representative of the vole tribe in Ireland was the bank vole which was largely confined to Munster.
Dr Eimear Rooney studied the ecology and diet of buzzards for her doctorate at Queens University Belfast. By examining the prey remains in 61 nests in Northern Ireland, she found that rabbits and crows occurred most often in nests there. There were a few hares as well but birds accounted for almost one-third of the breeding season diet. Surprising finds identified in the nests included one stoat, one kingfisher, several wrens, two juvenile long-eared owls and a domestic chicken.
I have also seen buzzards feeding on the ground, walking along and picking up earthworms and other small creatures. Several birds at once may follow a tractor and plough which turns up juicy morsels. Eimear Rooney concluded that the buzzard had a broader diet in the north-east of Ireland which was then a “vole-less environment”. However, this may change as the bank vole is spreading north and east and it has now been joined by the field vole, a very recent introduction in counties Monaghan and Cavan.
I had never seen a buzzard before I lived in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, but by then a few birds were already spreading back into the north coast area, probably from the Scottish population. I remember my surprise when I drove around a bend in Co Antrim and came face-to-face with one of these impressive birds sitting on a large straw bale.
Now they are found in every county in Ireland, although scarce in the western parts of Connacht. Almost every day now I see at least one buzzard soaring over our farm in Co Wicklow or emerging from local patches of woodland. They are found mainly where the landscape contains a mixture of small woods and hedges in the farmland where they feed. They often nest in tall hedgerow trees and can be seen perching on roadside fence posts from which they survey the ground for signs of movement of potential prey.
The buzzard is unique among our birds of prey in that it became extinct twice in Ireland but managed to return and recover by itself until it is now once again common and widespread. It provides proof that some wild species are resilient enough if they can live alongside our intensive use of the landscape.
Richard Nairn is an ecologist and writer. His latest book is Future Wild: Nature Restoration in Ireland. Ella McSweeney is away.
