[northfifeduckling]

oh no, 3 of them this time. Can't babysit my birdies all the time 
i know they are stunning creatures, but I hope they go away, far away ...

[faith0504]

oh i hope they fly straight over, a pic would be lovely 

[northfifeduckling]

well, one of them has an eye on the place, hovering over the next hill, flew over here once, too fast for me to catch a pic! Impressive through binoculars - and yes, he's still here and I'm still babysitting...Still hoping they go back to where they came from!

[jaykay]

How wonderful to see them, but yes, passing through would be best 
The sparrow hawks and buzzards stress me out here at little-chick time 

[northfifeduckling]

never had a problem with the buzzards but sparrowhaws took some ducklings in our first year..
one of them is still here, 4 hours later....

[MM]

For just over a year now we have had 3 turkeys in with our chooks and haven't lost any chicks to sea eagles or goldies yet despite a high presence in the area. Maybe we've just been lucky though....... Or maybe they are just scared off by all the eaglewatchers lurking nearby in the bracken and shouting excitably to each other!

[northfifeduckling]

someone in Fife let their hens out one morning and found on in there    it made the papers
I hope they find enough wildlife around here but they make me feel uneasy - I do have to go out every now and then! It's tempting though just to sit there with the binoculars

[ellied]

The north Fife sea eagle colony was established several years ago and seems to be doing well.  I occasionally see something high up and can't make out if it's one of them or a buzzard cos my eyesight at distance vertically is rubbish but they are so local to us NFD..

I wonder if I should drape some black veg netting strips over the chicken run   I hadn't thought of air predation, only cats, foxes etc

[northfifeduckling]

if your run is small enough it's worth a go, but here it's impssible...
get the binoculars out, Ellie - honestly you can't mistake them for buzzards! Buzzards circle, eagles hover. I know some were released near Muchty in the spring, no distance for them at all. Peter photographed one on the Newburgh/Muchty road last year

http://north-fife.blogspot.com/2010/08/fish-eagles-north-fife.html

[geebee]

whereabouts are you NFD? I'm desperate to see one! But NIMBY of course. Hope your flock are safe. I once had a buzzard swoop down at a hen, I was in the garden in a bright yellow jacket fixing fencing and heard the hen squawk, turned & saw buzzard inches from it but it veered away when it saw me. 

[northfifeduckling]

North Fife they are all over the place around here,  one once nearly hit my car on the way to Dundee on the A 92, it swerved faster than I could hit the break, thank heavens...

[ellied]

Interestingly I was out with the newly arrived chooks yesterday putting up used balewrap as strips and creating a white camouflage netting which has totally ruined my view of the ponies in the foaling field but hopefully will dissuade anything airborne from trying to drop in uninvited   Aswell as good recycling practice I feel marginally better about the overhanging tree too, tho youngest cat still managed to get in and was engaging in a staring contest with chief chook Dixie til I dashed out screeching 

There were lots of birds of prey overhead yesterday, at one point one buzzard had caught something and was carting it home while 2-3 others tried to get it from him/her - maybe a fledged family unwilling to wait for delivery?  Very low for them around here, hence my panic with the chooks in case my place was being added to potential hunt zones