With the Sanctuary closed to visitors, our raptor hospital has remained open to care for wild birds of prey that need some help. We recently took in a rather ill Buzzard, which was found on the edge of a field.
The Buzzard was showing little signs of life when it was found in a field.
Upon arrival, we couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with it, but it clearly wasn’t very well, so we put it in a small aviary and kept it in for observations. After about 36 hours, it appeared to be coming round, but was very unsteady and unable to focus on anything. The following day, a fresh faced Buzzard was looking out of the aviary and eating everything we gave it.
Having spoken to others who work in wildlife rescue, we think this Buzzard may have been feasting on prey that had been feeding at a nearby grain silo, where fermenting grain has been known to influence the behaviour of those animals which decide to eat it, and causing them to become drunk.
This is not a new phenomenon - every year during late autumn stories emerge of deer and rodents which have been over indulging on fermenting fruit and found themselves in compromising situations, but we have not found any stories relating to predatory species, such as birds of prey, which would have to eat a large amount of “drunk” prey to feel the effects.
We were very pleased with this Buzzard’s progress and after a few days, the original finders came to collect her and released her near where she’d been found. Hopefully she learnt her lesson and will stay away from the fermenting grain silos in future!