So I again must apologize, this time to the birdwatchers and experts but today I watched something that amazed and baffled me.  

 

It is crows, well I think they are crows - they are certainly very big, and black, and make the type of cawing noises redolent of countryside in autumn/winter and so vital to the plot development of many gothic horror films.

 

We have a lot of these chaps down at the wood and this time of year there appears to be even more of them than usual.  I has dawned on me over the last 4 years or so that the crows are very protective and/or territorial.  They seem particularly unhappy when the heron arrives and do a very good job of mobbing him and sending him on his way which is fine by me as we don't want to lose fish to him.  I have seen them mobbing small birds of prey - I can understand why they may feel so threatened by them - they are fast and sharp and there is little second chance when they go for a kill.

 

Today I heard a strange noise, it started with a kind of mewing high up behind a tree and was shortly followed by some cawing noises.  Then into view cam 5 birds, all of some size, flying and twising around each other in a remarkable display of aerial gymnastics.  This continued around and amongst the trees for some time and held me spellbound for over 10 minutes.  As I watched I realised that one bird was a buzzard and that, although it did not appear to be keen to continue the exchange, it was only trying to disengage rather than fly away.  I guess it was on a hunting trip which was not yet complete.  The crows were astonishingly persistent  and eventually persued it over the woods and out of sight.  

 

My question is why would they be so persistent when the buzzard's main diet is rabbit, rodents, insects, worms and a fair bit of carrion.  They do take some ground birds I know, but unless there is a youngster on the ground that cannot fly - which there did not appear to be - then why would something as big as a crow feel the need to mount such a vigorous defence.  Answers on a post card please (or better still, via our contact page) and I would be interested to see what the answer might be.