Honey Buzzard Visits

This beautiful bird, a Honey Buzzard, visited our garden this past weekend. It sat on a wall for a good 5 minutes before soaring into the air.

Being a long distance migrant, the honey buzzard relies on magnetic orientation to find its way south, as well as a visual memory of remarkable geographical features such as mountain ranges and rivers.

It has a rather bulging eye but this is quite normal for the species - they are the only bird of prey without that 'fierce' look which is caused by an overhanging eyebrow, usually thought to be there to keep the birds' eyes shaded from sun when they are out hunting their prey.