Buzzard in my garden

I believe there is a couple of Buzzards nesting nearby where I live. I have been watching mr Buzzard for the past few days as he has been flying from one end of the marsh to the other, landing on fence posts, telephone poles and trees. I only noticed he had a partner yesterday when I noticed the two of them sitting together on a log, the female (I believe) looked much darker than the male. I've not looked this up yet in my book maybe someone can confirm if females are darker.

As I'm typing this, the Heron has returned even though it's quite dark outside now and I only know this because of the noise it was making outside, it seemed to be hovering above the marsh while making this grunting sound.
Then it flew off and so did another large bird which was perched on a post. Must have been the Buzzard.

Anyway, I thought since the Buzzards seem to be hanging out nearby I thought I would try and attract them in to the garden, which I did within half an hour by placing a slice of bacon on the fence. They seemed to enjoy it and flew as close to the house as possible maybe looking for some more or just saying thanks and posing for some images

I was really thrilled at this sight and was not prepared for taking any images, it was very dull-poor light, but I grabbed my cam and took a few shots anyway. I fhte weather is better tomorrow I'll try get some decent shots of them as I will now offer some food up for as long as they remain here.

There are no bird feeders around the back so they won't bother the small birds which get fed around the front.

I might even try for some close up video as well.

Crap images and definitely not looking for any comments on them but here they are anyway

Very nice Grant.

You'll have to start collecting road kill now.

Lucky thing! Buzzards are quite rare here, though I'm still trying to devise ways of getting good shots of the Peregrines we have around. Mind, not easy - as they don;t seem to go for already dead stuff :/

Look forward to seeing the fab shots I know you'll get when you have better preparation and lighting!

xx

Nice one - and good tactic

We had a couple flying around here last weekend, very rare sight here in Manchester.

Beautiful birds.

Wow! How lucky are you! Fantastic shots!

Sorry, only just noticed this thread.

What a great story and wonderful shots.

Are the couple still around?

Loads flying around here, have counted up to 15 in the sky at once. Can't say we have had them that close although they have a favorite branch at the bottom of our grass paddock they seem to like.

Nice to get close up photos like those above

Bazza