In late winter 1994-95 I noticed a raptor in the same tree almost every morning beside the autobahn when driving to work. It was in a field close to the old Munich airport just one junction before the exit for my office. Again and again I puzzled over what it was as I shot past at speed.
I got fed up with this and ended up taking my camera and 500 mm lens with me to work some days and illegally parking on the hard shoulder. My first photo did not help much as the plumage did not match anything in my bird book. From some angles it looked very white - too much so in my view then to be a buzzard - but lacked the markings associated with other species.
However, photos did clear up some of the mystery along with a newly purchased copy of Birds of Prey of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East by Benny Gensbol. This is an excellent guide and there are systematic black and white drawings of many different raptors where the variation in plumage is very clearly set out. This book revealed to me how buzzards vary tremendously in colouring from dark brown to almost pure white. At the whiter end of the scale the markings on the upper wing like in the above photo are possible; the white patch on the shoulders with the rest being darker. The wing-tips are buzzard-like and there was a hint of bands in the tail feathers.
After getting a shot of the bird approaching its tree, it was clear that it was a buzzard. The shape was quite distinct from the silhouette and the narrow bands underneath the tail.
The whole experience opened my eyes to how much buzzards vary in colour. Since then I have seen even whiter buzzards in several different countries.
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2007-04-02 @ 23:40