The flow of Buzzards I saw was likely to be the same you had Roger.
In recent years it seems to me that Buzzards really seem to have increased as a migrant, presumably as their numbers have grown more have to leave southwards for the winter.

Thanks Simon, was a nice unexpected treat.

Cheers

wow, why is this I've never seen so many in one place, is this a common occurence??

thanks for repsondiing.

wow I thought they were buzzards but just seemed odd to see so many, do buzzards migrate, i did think they might have been juvenilles moving on.

Thanks for the reply.

Roger

Roger Bone wrote:

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Hi All,

Did any body else see about 14 raptors today circling over civic centre, I live about 5 minutes away and at about 12:30 saw what I thought was 3 buzzards and a sparrowhawk fly over my house, circling and moving towards civic, I thought then thay they might not be buzzards as the call the were making were the usual Buzzard sound. Then about 45 minutes later I was walking to ASDA with my sister telling her about what I saw and I kept checking the sky hoping to see more and to my delight over ASDA was 6 Buzzard size birds and then8 if not more smaller falcon type birds. All I can think is that these were passing during migrating.

I hope somebody else saw this and can tell me what they were, if only I had my camera and zoom lens which Ive left at a friends house I would have got some shots as the sky was so clear to.

Let me know if you saw this.

Thanks
Roger

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I think Henry Cook had around 12 Buzzards today over Davenport Green so possibly the same birds?

Hi All,

Did any body else see about 14 raptors today circling over civic centre, I live about 5 minutes away and at about 12:30 saw what I thought was 3 buzzards and a sparrowhawk fly over my house, circling and moving towards civic, I thought then thay they might not be buzzards as the call the were making were the usual Buzzard sound. Then about 45 minutes later I was walking to ASDA with my sister telling her about what I saw and I kept checking the sky hoping to see more and to my delight over ASDA was 6 Buzzard size birds and then8 if not more smaller falcon type birds. All I can think is that these were passing during migrating.

I hope somebody else saw this and can tell me what they were, if only I had my camera and zoom lens which Ive left at a friends house I would have got some shots as the sky was so clear to.

Let me know if you saw this.

Thanks
Roger

Yes all raptor species migrate, even Kestels and Sparrowhawks and yes quite common towards the end of September, but very noteworthy over Manchester

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 09:59:41 PM

Hi Roger,
We didn't see your birds but there has been a large number of raptors reported from many sites today, we had minimum if 19 Buzzards over Winter Hill along with up to 12 Sparrowhawks so likely yours were a mixture of these two species. A Goshawk was seen at Woolston, Hen Harrier also Winter Hill and a Red Kite in Bury so an excellent raptor day, but not surprising given the time of year and todays weather

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 09:55:39 PM