in article , Charlie Pridham at
wrote on 20/10/03 10:21 am:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
It hasn't rained here to any good purpose for months. In the last week,
we
have seen a buzzard on the big lawn, under the Atlantic cedar, three
times.
We have many buzzards around us but in 22 years here, Ray reckons he's
seen
them in the garden about three times.
We can only guess that they are just desperate for food, so are foraging
in
the shadier parts of our garden where the comparatively cooler temps and
the
spray lines might produce a meal for them.
We have some chick crumbs left over from raising the ducklings, so if
anyone
thinks those will help the buzzards, please let me know.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove the 'x' to email me)

I wouldn't worry about buzzards, they tend to do better in times of drought,
(more rabbits die on the roads trying to find grass) certainly around here I
have never seen so many, up to 20 at a time circling over the garden (maybe
they are trying to tell me something!) and the good news is for the first
time in years we have seen a down turn in magpie numbers. Should give the
smaller hedge birds a fighting chance.

Interesting how all this differs in different places. We aren't seeing an
increase in rabbits but magpie numbers appear unaffected. This is only a
cursory inspection when in the car, BTW! We get almost no magpies in our
garden - perhaps because we have a rookery? Dunno.
But the need for rain is desperate - it's months since we had a worthwhile
downpour.
--

Sacha
(remove the 'x' to email me)