| Juvenile, 24th August. At the beginning of the Batumi Raptor Count the local Common Buzzards are very evident calling and hunting over the surrounding woodland. They should be of the race menetriese. The Steppe Buzzards haven't started to migrate through the bottle-neck which makes it a little easier to be confident that you were looking at the local birds. However once the Steppe's begin appearing in mid September my confidence with the locals decreases! By the 17th October, the end of the count, the local Buzzard activity is non existent and the last few Steppe Buzzards are going south. The local birds are very similar to Steppe's but are slightly larger and longer winged. This difference I can appreciate sometimes. They also tend to be a darker rufous-brown but variation among Steppe's probably makes plumage difficult to trust. |
