High Latitude Birder: Rough-legged Buzzard

02 April, 2008

Rough-legged Buzzard

No time for real birding today, but still I saw one new species for 2008;
Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus) migrated to NW in the center of Tampere - I saw the buzzard from my office window.

I saw also some other migrating birds, like White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) and Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). Hopefully tomorrow evening I have some time for real birding...

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Author

Olli Haukkovaara

email: olli.haukkovaara @ proton.me

Valkeakoski, Finland

14 October, 2005

Pale Common Buzzard at Saaremaa, Estonia

I was today at Sõrve, Saaremaa with my birding friends Jyri Reinikka & Rainer Häggblom. The weather was nice and lots of birds around;

Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa),
Grey Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola),
Red Knots (Calidris canuta),
Woodlarks (Lullula arborea),

Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)
and many, many others.

Also couple of late butterflies, Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), were still in flight.

But during this morning the buzzards stole the show. Between 08:20 - 10:30 we saw 5 Rough-legged Buzzards (Buteo lagopus) and 71 Common Buzzards (Buteo buteo). One of them was really interesting, it was so called "Börringe-type" Common Buzzard i.e. a very pale individual. This was first time ever I saw this kind of buzzard!😊

Later I found a photo of possibly the very same individual from Antero Lindholm's and Annika Forsten's webpage. If you're interested in these pale buzzards, take a look at their page, there's more photos of them.