VOL. L MAY No. 5 1957 BRITISH BIRDS THE PAST AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE BUZZARD m THE BRITISH ISLES* By N. W. MOORE INTRODUCTION MYXOMATOSIS spread from the Continent of Europe to the British Isles late in the summer of 1953. The Buzzard (Buteo buteo), which was known to feed extensively on Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), was likely to be indirectly affected by the disease, so that the time appeared most opportune for making a special study of this particular hawk. An ecological investigation of the species seemed particularly worth making in any case because the Buzzard is much the commonest large bird of prey now occurring in Britain. Accordingly, early in 1954, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the British Trust for Ornithology accepted the proposed survey as one of its "Trust-aided investigations", with the writer as organizer. The Nature Conservancy gave generous support to the Survey by allowing the writer to spend part of his working time on it and by giving much secretarial help. The aim of the first (1954) survey was to record the Buzzard's status before it could be seriously affected by myxomatosis. In the course of writing a paper on the results of this 1954 survey, the writer was asked by the Editors of British Birds to contribute an article on the Buzzard for this series on birds of prey (see also antea, pp. 129-155), with the result that the original paper was modified and further historical research was undertaken, so that the final paper could perform the dual r61e of summarizing the 1954 Buzzard Survey and forming a part of the series on British birds of prey. *A Report to the British Trust for Ornithology. 173 174 BRITISH BIRDS [VOL. L The detailed aims of the paper are: — (i) To summarize what is known about the Buzzard's Status before 1954. {2) To summarize the data of the 1954 Buzzard Survey. (3) To sketch the Buzzard's eeological Status in Britain to-day. (4) To discuss the causes of popuiation changes of the Buzzard during the last 150 years. DISTRIBUTION IN THE FAST The main sources of Information about the distribution of the Buzzard in the past are the writings of conternporary naturalists. To-day the other large birds of prey are so rare that errors due to wrong identification must be slight. But when three species of harrier (Circus spp.), the Kite (Milvus milvus) and the Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) could all be seen rnüre or less frequently in Britain, all records, except those of reliable ornithologists, are suspect. John Ray (1678) distinguished between the Buzzard or Puttock, the Kite, the Honey Buzzard and the Bald Buzzard (Osprey, Pandion haliaetus) and the Moor Buzzard (Marsh Harrier, C. aeruginosus) and Ringtail or Hen Harrier (C. cyaneus)*, but probably few of his countrymen did. The Situation was further confused because the words, Buzzard, Puttock, Kite, Gled, Glede, meant different species according to region—all could refer to Buteo buteo.. Recognition of these sources of error must be taken before accepting any records of a Buzzard. In this section the past has been divided for convenience into four unequal periods. Each period is introduced with a summary of factors which were likely to have affected the Status of the Buzzard at that time. 1. Pleistocene and Recent until 1100 A.D. After the last ice age, Britain was largely covered by forest, and the Rabbit which was to become an important source of food, either had not yet been introduced into the country, or if it had, was a rare animal. Fossil bones of Buteo species have been found as follows: — Pleistocene. Devon (Brixham Cave) (Bell, 1915) Somerset (Clevedon) ,, ,, Kent (Ightham) „ ,, *This would include Montagu's Harrier (C. pygargus) which had not then been separated. VOL. L] THE BUZZARD IN BRITAIN 175 Neolithic. Orkneys (Rousay) (Platt in Callender, 1934) Roman. Dorset (Weymouth) (Carreck, 1955) West Meath (Lagore) (Hencken, 1950) These records cannot be used as proof that the Buzzard occurred in Britain at the times indicated: some of the bones may be those of the Rough-legged Buzzard (B. lagopus). However, Mr. R. W. Sims of the British Museum (Natural History) reports that some bones of these species can be determined specifically; it would be worth while to re-examine this material. 2. noo-ijgg. During this time most of Britain was cleared of woodland and eventually enclosed, and the Rabbit became one of our most abundant species. During the last years of the i8th Century game preservation began to have a significant effect on the fauna of England.* In an Act of James II of Scotland (1457) the Buzzard is listed as one of the "foulys of reif" to be destroyed. In the law 25 Henry VIII, CII, in which egg stealing was forbidden, it was stated that the act did not extend to such as kill "crows, choughs, ravens and buzzards". During the i7th Century the Church- warden of Tenterden in Kent paid id. or 2d. for every Buzzard head brought to him (Ticehurst, 1920). William Turner (1544) mentions the Buzzard and says that it was seen at all times. About this time a difference was made between the Buzzard and the Moor Buzzard (Marsh Harrier). The fact that the word "Buzzard" developed the secondary meaning of a worthless, stupid or ignorant person, suggests that it was well known. Culinary and medicinal qualities of the Buzzard were extolled by Lovell in 1661. The first reliable record of the Common Buzzard is that of John Ray (1678). The fact that he gives no details of distribution suggests that it was generally distributed in the i7th Century. It remained so in the i8th Century when Pennant described it as the "commonest of the hawk kind we have in England" (1776) and when John Latham called it "a bird known by everyone" (1781). The first records of individual specimens and exact localities belong to the end of the i8th Century. 3. i8oo-igi$. During this period most of the remaining waste lands were reclaimed, large areas became industrialized and, in the second half of it, agriculture declined. Rabbits became much commoner. Game preservation became one of the principal activities of the countryside. The Highlands were opened up to the visiting sports- *As early as 1768 R. Smith suggested ways of catching Buzzards among other "winged vermin" in order to protect pheasantries and warrens. 176 BRITISH BIRDS [VOL. L ! 1 II II 1 tjfl lss| 1 VOL. L] THE BUZZARD IN BRITAIN 177 *%&* . MKp £^ <^^ ^^H^EQcs^!^ a ™ VI 0 4 a 05 195 3 tt M *%- . X H fc WKg^ &^ ^"^ £3 V-—-^^V ) 6 IV{ 6 0 190 178 BRITISH BIRDS [VOL. L men (the railway reached Perth in 1849, Inverness in 1861 and Thurso in 1874). The breech-loader was invented in 1853. The vogue for making private collections of birds and eggs was at its height, though the first Wild Birds Protection Act was passed in 1880. At the beginning of the Century it is probable that the Buzzard bred in practically every county of the British Isles. It appears to have been commoner in England than Scotland (Yarrell, 1837). As late as 1846 Macgillivray stated that it was generally distributed in Britain and "occurs also in Ireland". But the decline that had begun in, the early years of the Century increased. In the 1860's A. G. More organized his pioneer survey of the distribution of the country's breeding birds by means of a simple and effective questionnaire. From the information received he desCribed the Buzzard as "by no means common and nearly exterminated in the eastern and midland counties of England" (More, 1865). It held out in Essex until 1865, in East Sussex until 1882, and in Lincoln- shire until 1888. By 1897 it was sufficiently rare for Dixon to include it in his "Lost and Vanishing Birds" and to State that it would become extinct "if persecution be not relaxed". The species had become a protected bird in 1880. In the B.O.U. list of 1915, the distribution is described as "West and Central Scotland, Inner Hebrides, Lakes, Wales, Devon and Cornwall commonly, Pennines sparingly". 4. 1916-1954. The two world wars caused revivals in agriculture, but between them there was a decline. Towns became much larger. The two wars and the economic depression caused a reduction in the size of estates and decreases in game-preservation. Bird-watching became populär: the collecting of specimens was largely superseded by the collecting of records. By the end' of the first world war the Buzzard had returned to much of its old ränge in Southern England, the Welsh Border country and elsewhere (see Witherby, 1924). In some districts it was later exterminated, but in others it held its own. In 1929 H. G. Hurrell organised a special study of the species in Devon for the newly formed Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society (1929). 46 pairs of Buzzards were recorded in a total area of 305.79 sq. miles. From this Hurrell estimated that the total Buzzard population in Devon at the beginning of the breeding-season in 1929 was between 900 and 1,200 birds. At the onset of the second' world war, it was found breeding regularly in Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Hereford and Shropshire. Further west it had become very numerous. In 1946 W. J. Ashford made a study of the species in Dorset (Blathwayt, 1947). He located about 20 pairs, but probably considerably more bred or attempted to do so. There is some evidence to suggest that the year of greatest VOL.