Bl##dy Hornets.

[Webby]

I'm curios,

can you please define, "Spray"?

Their words not mine.

 

[MartinL]

define, "Spray"?

Their words not mine.

So how would you define spray?

I've not sprayed those .

?

 

[bontbee]

... Bit like Buzzards, plenty of those now as well in the southeast.

Buzzard numbers here seem to have declined - I blame it on the red kites, oh, and the requirement for farmers to disposed of fallen stock, rather than leave it for the carrion eaters....

Yes but, at the price of Kestrels. Now on the Amber List!

Indeed. Not soo long ago, you'd see a kestrel hovering over a motorway "verge" every mile or so. Not now. Is it down to buzzards though? (And although I often see a buzzard trying to hover like a kestrel - not quite as successfully or elegantly - do they compete for the same prey?)

 

[user 15607]

Hi, I know that this has probably been asked before but I am asking again. Last night whilst looking at my hives I killed two hornets grabbing bees at the entrance. Tonight I've killed three more and in no time there were four more buzzing around. A nest close by? Any tips on finding it? There's a row of four old oaks in the field backing onto my apiary, start there I suppose?

Nice to be at the top of the food chain.


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[MartinL]

Buzzard numbers here seem to have declined - I blame it on the red kites, oh, and the requirement for farmers to disposed of fallen stock, rather than leave it for the carrion eaters....

Indeed. Not soo long ago, you'd see a kestrel hovering over a motorway "verge" every mile or so. Not now. Is it down to buzzards though? (And although I often see a buzzard trying to hover like a kestrel - not quite as successfully or elegantly - do they compete for the same prey?)

As the Buzzard numbers grew the Kestrel's depleted.
I'm sure the RSPB would be all out for protecting the buzzards an any cost but you just need to look at the data.

The Buzzards will predate all of the Kestrel's prey but you don't see many Kestrels flying off with a rabbit!
They were going on about how successful the Buzzards were, long before they noticed the lack of Kestrels!

Red Kites?

I can remember when they were rare, (truly wild ones still are) but so many are fed these days. If the feeding were to stop the numbers would decrease to a natural/sustainable level. I doubt that they're robust enough to compete with the hunters.

 

[peteinwilts]

As the Buzzard numbers grew the Kestrel's depleted.
I'm sure the RSPB would be all out for protecting the buzzards an any cost but you just need to look at the data.

The Buzzards will predate all of the Kestrel's prey but you don't see many Kestrels flying off with a rabbit!
They were going on about how successful the Buzzards were, long before they noticed the lack of Kestrels!

Red Kites?

I can remember when they were rare, (truly wild ones still are) but so many are fed these days. If the feeding were to stop the numbers would decrease to a natural/sustainable level. I doubt that they're robust enough to compete with the hunters.

Buzzards are lazy birds and will do the least possible for a meal. this is why they roadkill, and will even eat worms and slugs. This is why they suffer so much with asphegolosis.
Most falconers do not bother with them, as they are as enthusiastic as a teenager on a Saturday morning.

I would not blame buzzards for a decline in kestrels.

 

[Webby]

As the Buzzard numbers grew the Kestrel's depleted.
I'm sure the RSPB would be all out for protecting the buzzards an any cost but you just need to look at the data.

The Buzzards will predate all of the Kestrel's prey but you don't see many Kestrels flying off with a rabbit!
They were going on about how successful the Buzzards were, long before they noticed the lack of Kestrels!

Red Kites?

I can remember when they were rare, (truly wild ones still are) but so many are fed these days. If the feeding were to stop the numbers would decrease to a natural/sustainable level. I doubt that they're robust enough to compete with the hunters.

Kestrels main prey are voles. I don't think buzzards are catching too many of those.

 

[colinc]

I remember seeing a video on the news where hundreds of twitchers and birders had turned up to see a rare visitor to the UK, a Phalarope. It's a big wading bird. They all watched as a Buzzard swooped in and grabbed it for dinner.

The RSPB were calling it an incredibly rare event not due to Phalarope being on the menu but because Buzzards only eat carrion.

We see numerous buzzards and Kestrels in the field behind our house don't think the Buzzards displace Kestrels more likely due to the massive increase over recent years of all the corvids.


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[peteinwilts]

Buzzards are known to be nest robbers though (An easy meal!). Not as bad as the corvids though.

Regarding european hornets, they take many more wasps than bees, and the nests are usually quite small.. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

 

[colinc]

i had one around the hive during inspection a week or so ago. The significantly different buzz made me look for what was visiting.

I don't run a hornet trap though.

 

[Millet]

Buzzards and Kestrels rely on totally different food sources and ways of feeding, Buzzards will eat carrion and species they catch from Rabbits/ Pheasant/Partridge poults and any other ground nesting birds chicks/ toads/ frogs/worms to name a few, they do not have the ability to compete with Kestrels with the way they catch there food and what they target.

Kestrels eat small rodents of all types and the odd small young bird that can be ambushed, farming methods are the main factor for the reduction in Kestrel numbers not the Buzzard population, also harsh winters can put a big dent in the Kestrel population, they are only small birds with a body weight of 4oz to 8oz which means they need food twice per day during winter to keep alive, a Buzzard can fill its crop on a rabbit/ or road kill and not have to feed for three days and longer if need be.

Edited I have just looked at the topic title and not reading through the thread i'm wondering why we are on about Buzzards and Kestrels.. lol

 

[pargyle]

Buzzards and Kestrels rely on totally different food sources and ways of feeding, Buzzards will eat carrion and species they catch from Rabbits/ Pheasant/Partridge poults and any other ground nesting birds chicks/ toads/ frogs/worms to name a few, they do not have the ability to compete with Kestrels with the way they catch there food and what they target.

Kestrels eat small rodents of all types and the odd small young bird that can be ambushed, farming methods are the main factor for the reduction in Kestrel numbers not the Buzzard population, also harsh winters can put a big dent in the Kestrel population, they are only small birds with a body weight of 4oz to 8oz which means they need food twice per day during winter to keep alive, a Buzzard can fill its crop on a rabbit/ or road kill and not have to feed for three days and longer if need be.

Edited I have just looked at the topic title and not reading through the thread i'm wondering why we are on about Buzzards and Kestrels.. lol

Divergent threads are one of the things I really love about this forum ... there are few days that go by when I dip in and don't learn something about something that I didn't know or hadn't considered ...

We had a pair of red kites nesting in the firs at the bottom of our garden this year - bear in mind that I'm not far from the town centre and the immediate vicinity is principally residential. Only thing I can think is that the trees are by far the tallest for miles around and as the kite flies we are only a mile from open fields. I didn't feed them - indeed, we only noticed them very late as a result of a commotion when some wood pigeons got a bit too close ..

The reduction in bird of prey numbers is all down to the problem that is afflicting the UK generally .... monoculture, lack of hedgerows, lack of field margins, pesticides that kill the start of the food chain so fewer small mammals and birds all coupled with a lack of habitat generally and the desire of some people to kill anything they don't like for some reason .... is it any wonder that species are in decline.

If we carry on this way the prospect for my grandchildren is pretty grim ... even now I find it extraordinary that my childhood memories of laying on my back in a flower filled meadow watching skylarks soaring and singing above are unlikely to be replicated by the next generation - except when some enterprising farmer grows some and then charges us for the privilege of enjoying a summers afternoon in a meadow..

The National Wildflower Meadow Museum .... there's the idea - who's got the land ?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I was in the apiary when I saw a pair of kites hunting over my far paddock this afternoon and as they passed behind the treeline to the South a third kite appeared from the North and appeared to be working as part of the same group. The rabbit population were conspicuous by their absence.