These flights act as warning displays for potential intruders. They frequently soar, or follow the boundaries of their territory, and make their presence known with that evocative call. Throughout the summer while the young are being reared, the adult pair continue to display. It’s beautiful to watch, and it’s why we are so addicted to watching raptors. It is extraordinary how fast they climb … and if we are lucky, they might then come close together, wing tips touching, and then with wings back the male stoops at breathtaking speed. The smaller male usually climbs first, with the female following under him, sometimes spiralling in the opposite direction. They are at their most spectacular when they soar (spiral) upwards on a thermal. It’s usually their calls that attract our attention, and then it is a privilege to watch their mastery of flight in these displays. We see them most often in spring when the pair renew their vows in noisy and beautifully aerobatic courtship displays. We are lucky that Woodcock Wood is a small but central part of their territory. With open fields behind the pines, this makes the perfect habitat for this beautiful bird. In Woodcock Wood they fly above our backdrop of Corsican pine and make forays across the chestnut coppice, occasionally perching in the tall oaks.
but during the spring and summer it’s rare for us not to see and hear the buzzards. The original blog was called “Woodcock Wood’s Buzzards” and started: “ Well, not ours exactly …. While I will never achieve the same quality as John’s, I now have a number I would like to include. Since then I’ve been working hard on developing my own library. When I first published this blog in January 2019 my personal library of reasonable photos was limited, and John Hawkins gave me permission to use some of his amazing shots.
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