WITH buzzards seen all over rural Wiltshire these day, in flight, perched and standing in fields and even on town verges, it is easy to forget that they were once under threat in the UK, writes BRUNO CLEMENTS.

Author Peter Dare, a scientist who has been studying the species since the 1950s after being inspired in the late 1940s by seeing buzzards soaring in Devon, brings together a lifetime of research combined with the findings of other studies in this new book.

His enthusiasm and ability in conveying his labour of love - for much of his life he was employed as a marine biologist - is infectious and there are gems of information on most pages of this well-illustrated book.

I had no idea that buzzards have recorded living well into their twenties here and continental studies note birds in their 29th year.

On a sombre note the author describes post-mortem evidence which shows many - if not most - birds which died in the 1970s and ’80s were poisoned, shot or trapped with the likelihood that many other incidents of persecution going unrecorded.

It is the (near) end of persecution which has enabled birds like buzzards and red kites (helped by reintroduction programmes) to return to our skies, although incidents of killing birds of prey are still being recorded.

Dare records that the population of buzzards has trebled to about 60,000 in 2000 since the early 1980s, protective legislation coming into force in 1981. His detailing in The Life of Buzzards how the adaptable buzzard can cope with ever-changing conditions, when given half a chance, is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the book.

Buzzards’ ability to exist on a diet of everything from frogs and worms to dead sheep mean they can survive where other birds of prey struggle, although the myxomamatosis outbreak in rabbits, one of their main food sources, caused consternation in the 1950s.

Buzzards in Devon have been seen carrying adders, taking an eel from a heron and, in Wales, killing herring gulls.

However, there are no confirmed and published records of buzzards killing adult pheasants, a concern of the powerful shooting lobby.

There is description of weight-loss of birds during winter famine conditions and how prey remains have been analysed in buzzard pellets and it’s fair to say that not every reader will pour over every detail.

However Dare describes his studies, watching buzzards for hours at time, climbing to nests to monitor chicks and feeding habits, in an engaging way.

Even if you don’t aspire to spend hours of your spare time cooped up in a Land Rover watching buzzards tending their young, this is a work which will surely inspire others to begin studies of a creature close to their hearts.

  • The Life of Buzzards by Peter Dare, is published by Whittles Publishing, Caithness, Scotland, priced £22.99 ISBN Number: 9781849951302