Injured buzzard to soar once again

Sean McMahon

There is an opportunity to see one of Ireland’s most majestic birds of prey up close at Creeny Bridge, Belturbet, later today (Wednesday, November 27), as it is released back into the wild.
The bird will be released at 2pm after a lengthy spell of recuperation from a wing injury.
Roughly 10 weeks ago a local farmer found the injured bird on his farm on the outskirts of Belturbet and decided to take it home to a shed for safety, so it could rest with some food and water.
That a person could catch the buzzard was, obviously, a sure sign that it was injured.
The farmer made contact with wildlife enthusiasts George Morrissey and Shelley Cole who soon determined, that it was indeed a buzzard - a protected species all over Europe. Deciding that the bird required professional attention, Shelley transported the bird all the way to the ‘Eagles Flying’ centre in Ballymote, Co Sligo and the centre’s director, zoologist Lothar Muschketat took it into his care.
Shelley told The Anglo-Celt they are looking forward to the buzzard being released later today.
“We did not know whether it was going to make a recovery or not, so it is nice to have a happy ending,” she said.

Painkillers
Lothar told The Celt this week that the ‘fingers’ on one wing were broken. This resulted in the tip of the wing being loose, so while the bird could flap, it could not properly fly.
“The long wing feathers, which pushes the bird forward when it is flapping, is attached to the second and third fingers, which are fused to make one, strong bone,” he explained.
“We splinted the wing and bandaged it and left the bird safe in an aviary and it got medical attention every day, which included painkillers.
“After about six weeks we removed the bandage and we could see that the bird could fly again. We have been doing physiotherapy on the bird, to make it strong again, because the muscles degraded during the time it was bandage. I think the time has come now to let it go back to nature,” he said.

Injury
Asked how it may have sustained the injury, Lothar couldn’t be sure.
“It is hard to say - it could have been a shot wound. It could have hit a wire or some other obstacle. We x-rayed the bird and we could not find any lead shot – the bones are very thin, so it would go right through the wing. If lead shot hit the bigger part of the body, it would get stuck.”
Lothar said that all birds of prey are protected by law.
“It is illegal to do them any harm, to catch them or keep them illegally, or to shoot, trap or poison them,” he said.
“It is good to create awareness and that is why we are inviting the press in to tell people that these birds don’t do any harm. Buzzards have small feet and live on mice, young rats and earth worms. They also eat carrion, like most birds of prey.
Having become extinct in Ireland in the first half of the last century, the buzzard population has made a remarkable recovery since a number of birds from Scotland migrated to these shores in the 1960s.
“Because there was a strong population there at that time, there was no space for the young birds, so they crossed the sea and settled down and established a breeding population in Antrim.
“The population grew and grew and the young birds had to leave that area and move further south,” he explained.

Belturbet’s buzzard is released at 2pm on Wednesday (November 27), and The Eagles Flying centre in Ballymote will re-open from April 1 of next year.