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Buzzard pair at nest. Photo authors: Joosep Tuvi and Ülo Väli

 

 

The year dedicated to the three buzzard species – the common buzzard, honey buzzard and rough-legged buzzard – is coming to an end and it is time to take a look at what has happened.

 

We hope that the buzzards became much more familiar to many people. During the year there were 34 lecture evenings and 20 buzzard watching tours, where almost 500 buzzard friends took part. Buzzard enthusiasts could learn more about the buzzards in over ten television and news clips, and as many radio broadcasts. Nearly twenty articles described the life of buzzards more in detail in journals and magazines. Completely new information about the life of buzzards was supplied by 5 buzzards with GPS transmitters and three web cameras on buzzard nests. The new buzzard song presented a humorous but yet concise survey.

 

Everyone wishing to contribute to the buzzard year could do so. The 1129 observations that were entered by bird friends during the year helped to make surveys of the migrating periods of buzzards, their habitats and their behaviour. Our best known transmitter buzzard Villu got his name proposed by 512 people from 305 different suggestions; people named all the web buzzards too. In the buzzard year it was also possible to participate in fashion creation -  more than 100 ideas were entered to the T-shirt design competition and the best of them were finally realized as buzzard T-shirts.

 

The buzzards themselves also contributed to the success of the buzzard year. This year Estonia got a new buzzard species – the long-legged buzzard (Buteo ferox). In autumn a wholly white leuchistic buzzard caused some excitement; nothing like it had been seen earlier in Estonia.

 

Hopefully people will be interested in the buzzards and our other birds of prey will remain in the future too. Everyone is welcome to join the bird of prey monitoring where the first part – counting the wintering birds of prey – will take place already in January. More details will be available about this in the beginning of the new year on the website of the Estonian Ornithological Society: www.eoy.ee

 

More can be read about the buzzard year and the buzzards on the website of the 2015 Bird of the Year:

 

Female honey buzzard at the nest. Photo authors: Tarmo Evestus, Ülo Väli

 

Although the Year of the Buzzard website will not be updated, the source will be continue to be available to all in the future.

 

Additional information from the organizers of the buzzard year:

Project leader Ülo Väli, ulo.vali@emu.ee

Northern Estonia  Aarne Tuule, aarne.tuule@eoy.ee, 58002869

Southern Estonia  Urmas Sellis, urmas@kotkas.ee, 5034799