WHAT BIRD WAS rr ?
A quite abnormal number of rare birds—and one rare mammal—have been recorded in England this year ; and the odd appearances continue. A very good observer sends me the following query : " Last week I watched a strange bird close to the Ouse at Bluntisham, and wondered if you could help me in identification. It was very much like a buzzard in size and colour, except for a very conspicuous white patch at the base of the tail. It was flying low and working an osier bed, very much in the manner of a Barn Owl, alternately skimming on outstretched wings and then giving long slow strokes. After a time it left for a more distant ozier bed and passed out of sight." It is extremely difficult to identify any bird, even a well-known bird, from verbal descriptions; but in this ease a tentative conjecture put forward by the inquirer himself may be confidently accepted. The bird was undoubtedly a rough-legged buzzard. It chiefly differs from the common buzzard (so named, like common sense, because it is so uncommon) in the conspicuousness of the white base to the tail ; and its distinction in habit is its marked preference for marshy places. Now that buzzards are multiplying— though chiefly in the West—we may expect them to return to Fast Anglia, where they used to nest 80 years ago.
Previous page
