Winners - 2. Common Buzzard and Red Kite

This is the second in an occasional series looking at bird species that have fared well - and those not so well - across the uberpatch over the last 50-odd years.

In 1974, the year of the birth of my ornithological journey, Common Buzzard was not a species that you could even think of seeing in London and the Home Counties. Or in 1984. Or, for that matter, 1994. If I wanted to avail myself of a bit of Buzzard action I needed to go to the New Forest or undertake a long car journey to the West Country where I might be able to feast my eyes on one flying over a major A-road in Wiltshire, Devon or Cornwall. They were special. They were 'an event'. How times change...

It was not until 28 September 1999 that a Common Buzzard and I crossed paths on the uberpatch, a single at Holmethorpe SP. It had been expected as they had been increasing in number in the SE of England, but was still something to be celebrated. The next encounter was one that flew over the M25/23 junction as I was sitting stationary in car on 30 January 2000. My third was a garden tick (23 September 2000) the day after a Honey Buzzard had done the same thing, during that species's unprecedented invasion into the UK from the continent. So Honey Buzzard was admitted onto my garden list before Common Buzzard! We were up and running, if not at the levels that we were soon to accept as the norm.

Following singles at Dawcombe (15 July 2001), Buckland (12 May 2003) and Reigate Hill (25 October 2003) sightings became more frequent. By 2005, I started to see this species with some regularity in the Reigate, Holmethorpe, Banstead and Walton-on-the-Hill area, with even heavily urban sites such as Beddington SF yielding sightings. A big development in the uberpatch Common Buzzard story occurred on 30 August 2008 when a mid-morning skywatch session from Nutfield Ridge (above Holmethorpe) revealed 17 moving eastwards over a period of two hours. Although such movements were not yet regularly observed it was certainly the start of them being so - one example being 26 in the skies above Canons Farm on 5 April 2016, with 18 of them moving through on a NE to SE bearing.

A marked spring passage was then expected, with March and April the best months to observe this happening. You did not have to be perched on top of the downs to witness such movement. From my suburban garden in Banstead counts of 10-15 birds were expected with birds heading east. Any benign weather, especially with blue skies and a bit of warmth seems to stir them up, get them moving. Passing birds will often get the 'locals' in the air to see them off and on their way. To date my highest count is of 55 on 27 March 2025, a morning when I walked westwards along the base of the North Downs scarp slope between Colley Hill and Box Hill. Many of these birds were drifting west.

Common Buzzards are now a common breeding species across the uberpatch. Even in the most suburban of areas it is possible to see them displaying. Their calls are as much a part of the local scene as those of Carrion Crows, Jackdaws and Ring-necked Parakeets. Many has been the time when a lone Common Buzzard 'mew' has alerted me to look up and see several wheeling above. To put it simply they are now an everyday part of the scene.

The story of the Red Kite is not dissimilar albeit not as numerically successful (yet!) Between 1989 and 1994 a reintroduction scheme was established in the Chiltern Hills (some 40 miles NW of the uberpatch) with the release of c90 birds which had largely originated from Spain. This scheme took off, with birds soon breeding and dispersing to find other areas to colonise. I had to wait until 9 April 2007 for my first local bird, at Holmethorpe, with another seen with the moving Common Buzzards on 30 August 2008 along Nutfield Ridge. The next encounter took a while to come along, with one March morning in 2012 providing singles at Beddington SF and then over my back garden in Banstead. This latter bird came in both low and slow, giving me time to alert my wife from indoors to share in the spectacle.

At about the time that Common Buzzards started to appear with more regularity the same was partially true with the kites - never as numerous or as reliable - but they were seen regularly enough to be half expected. Days of Buzzard movement would include a Red Kite or two, then three, then four... they started to grow in number although never as numerous as the former species. 

It is now a rare day when I do not see a Red Kite. They are urban and suburban birds as much as they are birds of the more open countryside. It is wonderful to watch them patrol low over the houses, surveying the gardens below. When I watch local non-league football matches across the area it is unusual not to have my attention diverted away by a patrolling kite. And if I want to see numbers I head to the west of the uberpatch, where the North Downs runs above Denbies and Wootton. My highest count is of 20 on 9 October 2025, gathered together on the slope and fields, frequently taking to the air uttering their shrill calls, tempting me to scan them and count. In 2026, by far the most regularly observed raptor species across the region are Common Buzzard and Red Kite. As I remarked earlier, how times change.