The last time I posted pictures of Buddy and Holly, the buzzard chicks, was two weeks ago. Look how much they’ve grown! They have changed from fuzzy white alien looking creatures to larger winged raptor chicks. Here are the before and after pictures;
My friend Alison and I went up to see how they were doing yesterday evening. When we first went they were well hunkered down in the nest and we only got glimpses of the odd yellow beak or sleepy white eye in amongst grey and brown shapes.
So we left them to it and went walking on looking for owls and cygnets, though these were hiding from us too. But later we returned to the nest and this time the chicks had woken up a bit and were having a good shuffle and stretch in the nest! Buddy, or was it Holly, was exercising the wing muscles. I’m going to say Holly, as a female buzzard is larger than a male buzzard. These two chicks would have been born some days apart though, so it is the older sibling that is bigger here, regardless of sex.
Having stretched her wings the adventurous Holly decided to step to the edge of the nest and have a look down. Buzzard chicks fledge at between 50 and 55 days old. I think there’s a week or two left before these leave the nest yet.
The following photos are of the Buzzard chick I was watching this time last year, who I named Buzz. He or she was at the same nest as this year’s chicks. This was Buzz very close to fledging, although I went on holiday just after this was taken and when I returned of course the nest was empty. This year we humans are unable to get into our planes and fly, so hopefully I’ll be able to watch and see when Buddy and Holly take to the skies.
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 