10/06/21 - Buzzard chick

Last year whilst working at Thornton Ellers we found a Common Buzzard chick on the ground beneath a nest high up in trees - fortunately it was OK, and after a couple of days in care with Jean, it was successfully returned to its nest. This year a similar thing happened, with another young chick found on the ground again, however this time the nest could not be located, and so Jean soon found herself in the care of the Buzzard chick – unbeknown to Jean, we had just been out surveying on the NNR, and had checked last years nest to see if it had been reused, and had been pleased to see two chicks peering over the side of the nest.

Several hours later Jean contacted us to say she had just received the Buzzard chick which needed a new home - and although Jean could have reared the young chick on for release, it is obviously better for the bird to be ‘wild’ reared, so we hatched a plan to adopt it into our nest on the reserve. This has been done before with other species with good success, so it seemed like the best option. With a tree climber having just become part of our team, the young chick was soon placed into the nest, where it joined two other similar sized birds. Watching from a safe distance, we were then delighted to see the adults return shortly afterwards with food, with all three being fed. We’ll carefully monitor the nest over the coming weeks to check all is well, and with each of the three young being colour-ringed we’ll be able to monitor their long-term progress. Many thanks to Jean and our team for their efforts.