Buzzard snatches rare osprey

Fears have been raised for some of Scotland?s rarest birds after dramatic video footage emerged online of an osprey chick being snatched from its nest by a buzzard.

The video was released by landowner Euan Webster, who maintains round-the-clock video surveillance on the nest, located at Lochter Activity Centre in Aberdeenshire.

Workers and customers at the site say they have been left ?shattered? at the loss of the four-week-old chick and now fear for the survival of its remaining sibling.

?This was a shocking act,? Mr Webster said, ?and clearly demonstrates why something needs to be done to control buzzards.

?It cannot be right that the buzzard remains protected yet they swarm over the countryside in large numbers eating prey ? including iconic and beautiful birds such as ospreys ? at will.?

Mr Webster said that he believed the nest raid counters received opinion from bird experts about buzzard feeding behaviour. ?Any farmer or shepherd will tell you about the threat from buzzards, yet the powers that be are reluctant to face up to the fact that sooner rather than later measures will have to be put in place to control them.

The rest of this article appears in the 4th July issue of Shooting Times.

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