The First Breeding of Honey Buzzard in Derbyshire

The article below has just been published in the 2019 Derbyshire Bird Report and, as a co-author, I thought it would be of interest to those who are not members of the Derbyshire Ornithological Society. With a few additional photos.

The First Breeding of Honey Buzzard in Derbyshire

On 16 July 2016, while scanning an area of moorland in North Derbyshire, Roger Carrington was very surprised to see a pale morph male Honey Buzzard Pernis apivorus, clearly in hunting mode, fly almost directly over him. The date was intriguing, which led to several observers subsequently spending time in the area, and pulses quickened when a female was found with the same male a week later and the exhilarating wing-clapping display was observed. 

The moorlands in the area are fringed by some extensive stretches of mixed woodland and it seemed possible that breeding was taking place, but this could not be confirmed despite co-ordinated long-distance watches involving several observers, especially on 29th and 30th July. However, the birds were spending most of their time in a particular wooded valley, where the last sighting of the summer concerned the female on 24 August.

The authors have all spent some time observing Honey Buzzards at breeding sites in neighbouring Nottinghamshire where a last sighting in August is consistent with an unsuccessful year; when young are raised, the last sightings are typically in September. It is, however, impossible to say how long the Derbyshire birds had been in the area before the first sightings and whether they had attempted to breed but been unsuccessful.

Honey Buzzard = male August 2016

Honey Buzzard - female August 2016

Honey Buzzard - male (August 2017) and female perched (August 2016)

In 2017 hopes were high for a return but were initially kept on hold. A sighting of a bird in the Wye Valley at Rowsley could not definitely be ascribed to either of the Derbyshire 2016 pair, while a male seen at Ogston Reservoir on 28th May and 3rd June was believed by the observer, in retrospect, to be quite possibly the 2016 summering male. It was not until 17th June that a female Honey Buzzard was seen in the valley where the birds had spent most of their time in 2016. The male was seen the next day, flying from the Leash Fen area towards the valley, several kilometres away. Photographs and detailed descriptions of both the male and female in 2017 left no doubt that they were the same individuals as in 2016. In particular the male was a strikingly pale bird with a complete absence of barring on the breast, inner forewing and belly and distinctive dark markings around the carpals and neck. From 18th to 24th June there were almost daily sightings of the male at Ramsley, where drainage of the reservoir in 2002 led to the creation of several small, shallow pools which support high numbers of frogs and toads, known to be an important food source for Honey Buzzards, e.g. see Roberts & Law [2014]. Subsequently, there were occasional sightings of both male and female Honey Buzzards, with activity increasingly centred on one particular area, on the edge of extensive woodland on the valley slopes, and surrounded by upland pasture. Following a great deal of long-distance viewing, the specific patch of woodland was visited on 6th August, when the male Honey Buzzard was flushed from a Sessile Oak Quercus petraea growing out of a very steep bank. A side fork in the tree held the nest, which contained a single youngster, estimated to be about seven days old. Extrapolating back, using an incubation period of 32 days following Roberts & Law [2014], gives a laying date of 29th June, just 12 days after the first sighting in the breeding area. This is a month later than the situation in Nottinghamshire, where eggs are normally laid at the end of May [pers. obs.].

Honey Buzzard one of the few occasions when I saw the pair together 16/08/2016

Long-distance observations of the nesting area, in the three weeks or so after hatching suggested that the male did most of the provisioning, with sightings more evenly split between the sexes after that. The male was seen wing-clapping on 28th June, this being the only occasion when display was noted during the breeding success in 2017. Interestingly, the 28th June date correlates closely with the extrapolated laying date of 29 June. On four occasions between 11th and 22nd July the female was observed ‘whiffling’- quickly extending each wing alternately while rapidly losing height; could this have been an atypical form of display? The male was seen at Ramsley on 10th and 23rd August, and was last seen, close to the nest, on 6th September, whereas the female was not seen after 30th August. On 23rd August the observer commented that; 

“as it left Ramsley the male was clearly carrying prey, but after it had gained height and tucked its feet in, the prey could not be seen”.  

Visits to the nest were made at roughly weekly intervals by observers holding the relevant disturbance licence from Natural England. Observations were made from some 30m, though views were heavily restricted, firstly because of dense foliage between the observer and the nest tree and secondly, due to difficulty obtaining a clear line of site through the heavily leaved oak branches. The chick, which was predominantly white when a downy nestling, was last seen in the nest on 6th September, by which time it was almost completely brown but with fine, pale streaks on the head recalling an eaglet. 

Fresh oak leaves were noted on the nest on all but the final visit with the nest expanding markedly in step with the growth of youngster. Wasp comb debris littered the nest on the second nest visit (chick c14 days old) but none was observed to be present on the fourth visit (youngster c28 days old). The nest was empty when visited on 17th September but a sighting of the juvenile in flight at Ramsley on 20th September made a very satisfactory conclusion to a summer of interest and excitement.

Montage of the Honey Buzzard chick as it matured

In 2018, now presenting feather damage to the right forewing, ‘our’ male was present in the breeding area between 28th May and 10th August, but sadly no female appeared.

Male Honey Buzzard - showing wing damage and looking like the radius was completely broken

A male at Ogston Reservoir on 11th June and 5th July was again thought to be possibly the same individual, whereas photographs of a male at Calver on 26th May showed that bird was a different individual. During June, the 2017 nest was built up by the regular male and frequent display flights were observed.

In 2019 there was a single distant sighting of a male over the breeding area on 31st May, which was considered likely to concern the 2016-18 male. Presumably it was this individual that was later seen in The Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire, where it spent the majority of summer and was easily identifiable as the Derbyshire male of 2016-18.

Montage of the male Honey Buzzard, final image showing damage to right forewing

This was the first confirmed breeding of Honey Buzzards in the county. Frost & Shaw [2013] described the species as a rare passage migrant and non-breeding visitor, with 70 records between the eighteenth century and 2011, this total including 11 records involving 

20 birds during an exceptional influx in the autumn of 2000. There were three records that might suggest possible breeding, in upland forestry areas in June 2006 and 2007 and in August 2009, to which can be added a further sighting in August 2013. All of these areas were well away from the 2016-18 site.

However, it would perhaps pay to be aware of the possibility of encountering this self-effacing species in well-wooded upland areas, as described for some Welsh sites by Roberts & Lewis [2003] and more recently for Scotland by Shaw et al [2017].  

Honey Buzzards are rare breeding birds in the UK, with the 2017 breeding population assessed by Holling et al [2019] as 27-47 pairs, while admitting that the true number may be double that. The nearest regular breeding area to Derbyshire is in The Dukeries region of Nottinghamshire, where a tiny population has a history of regular breeding, though this has become more erratic in recent years [Reece et al, 2019]. 

Acknowledgements; For their observations and/or replying to queries, we would like to thank John Atkin, Roger Carrington, Mel Hayes, Steve Mann, Simon Roddis, Ken Smith and Alan Stewardson.

References;

Frost, R.A. & Shaw, S.  2013.   The Birds of Derbyshire  Liverpool UP.

Holling, M. & the Rare Breeding Birds Panel  2019. Rare breeding birds in the United Kingdom in 2017. Brit.Birds 112: 706-758

Reece, J., Crouch, N., Parkin, D.,  du Feu, C. & Ellis, B. 2019.  The Birds of Nottinghamshire   Liverpool UP.

Roberts, S.J. & Law, C.  2014.   Honey-buzzards in Britain. Brit.Birds 107: 648-691

Roberts, S.J. & Lewis, J.M.S.  2003. Observations of European Honey-buzzard breeding density in Britain.  Brit.Birds 96: 37-38

Shaw, K.D., McInerny, C.J., Little, A., Little, K., Nadin, J.S. & Goater, R.  2017. An exceptional season at a central Scotland Honey-buzzard study area. Scottish Birds 37: 3-13 

Roy Frost, Andy Butler, Mick Taylor, Paul Thomas.