THEY may now be Britain's most common bird of prey, but it's not often that many of us come this close to a buzzard.
Our picture of the day, snapped by Camera Club member Geoff Houghton, features the stunning raptor more often seen soaring high above perched on branches in his Stoke Prior garden.
Although common and widespread now, the buzzard population suffered serious decline through the twentieth century.
In addition to illegal killings perpetrated by landowners who considered buzzards to be a threat to their game birds, the raptor population was greatly affected by the loss of an important food source in 1955, when myxomatosis decimated the rabbit population.
Populations further shrank into the 1960s, with their ability to reproduce affected by the use of certain pesticides, remaining restricted until they were withdrawn from use in the late 1960s.
The RSPB reports that the population has now recovered to such a great extent that buzzards have recolonised every county in the UK, with up to 79,000 breeding pairs.
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