We have been informed that a game keeper working for the Lingholm estate north of Keswick is about to be prosecuted for allegedly killing Buzzards on this estate. What is more important it appears the estate is currently for sale, or may already have been sold. Because Lingholm is situated in a very scenic area backing onto Derwent water, the house and grounds are frequented by thousands of tourists each year who visit the Lake District National Park where they are able to walk around the lake or catch a boat and shorten their journey back to where you started. Lingholm also has a strong association with Beatrix Potter who visited the house many times.
The large estate house has a number of smaller houses for sale as well which includes the ‘keepers’ house. With such a massive tourist structure in the area these Buzzards will have been seen by 100,000s of visitors to the area and of course just a stones throw from the property are the Bassenthwaite Ospreys worth £2 million a year to the area. Young from these ospreys have also returned to the area and a number these fledglings have been seen using Derwent Water itself.
With a new push to make ‘Nature tourism’ one of the big money spinners for so many businesses in the Lake District what a shame that estates like this can still cause so much damage in a National Park.
View Lingholm house and grounds here
While not condoning poisoning buzzards, they do seem likely to pose a danger to the rarer ospreys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWxWQ4PmCk
Published on 27 Jun 2012 by EveningExpressVideos
DRAMATIC video footage showing an osprey chick being snatched from its nest by a buzzard emerged today.
Shocked rural business owner Euan Webster released the footage which shows two rare osprey chicks in the nest.
As the mother bird left her nest at Lochter near Oldmeldrum, the buzzard swooped in and grabbed one of the chicks.
MJ, Ospery killed by Buzzard – Old rubbish. Do try to keep up at the back.
Does it matter if it is old? Still seems undisputed or was it a fake video altogether?
Nobody’s disputing the video; just the ridiculous notion conclusion you draw from it. I saw a spider catch a fly the other day. Does this mean the fly population’s in danger of being wiped out by spiders?
Oops, forgive the typo “notion”.
Forgive my conclusion, Coop, but I thought ospreys were far more endangered and therefore in need of help, than buzzards seem to be. There are many buzzards over local farmland here so they hardly need to prey on ospreys to be successful in UK.
I think you may have missed my point: The UK Osprey population is actually increasing, and the species has a wide global disribution. Occasional predation by Buzzards isn’t going to change that one iota. There are, of course, some species that have declined to a level at which they can’t absorb predation; Ospreys aren’t one of them. I apologise for the “acidity” of my previous posts, but there are some (with ulterior motive), who falsely use such events as an excuse to justify illegal persecution, and/or demand legislative changes to allow Buzzards to be “controlled” Re: the original article which appears in the June 2012 archive of this website.
Thankyou Coop and Doug.
Not at all. I hope that this has helped to further your understanding.
MJ, since when have Ospreys been endangered? With over 200 pairs and rising,Ospreys are doing very well with breeding pairs in England, Wales, as well as Scotland. Ospreys are not a resident bird but are a summer visitor and are quite common in many parts of the world.
Buzzards are very versatile hunters and a young Osprey or Kestrel or young rabbit will provide a meal depending on what is available in their territory. Raptors preying on other raptors is commonplace and is quite natural.
It was humans that drove the Osprey to extinction in the UK, NOT BUZZARDS.