Buzzards – forty years ago in my nature notebooks

Seeing a Buzzard was a thrilling experience when I was 12 years old. So much so that I noted it down in my nature notebooks:

Despite only being 12, there’s still no excuse for me not knowing the difference between ‘were’ and ‘where’.

Forty years later and I’m driving through Wiltshire when I see a Buzzard on the top of a hedge.

As a child I only got to see Buzzards on holiday, and even then it was normally on the train that I got the best views.

Back then I saw Buzzards which were ‘light phase’ with significant amounts of pale markings on them.

Now I have a telephoto lens I can get a view of the hooked beak I could only have dreamed of as a child. This one is definitely a ‘dark phase’ individual.

I’m looking forward to photographing one in flight as it circles above me, just like one did in 1977.