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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mal Taylor" data-source="post: 1793810" data-attributes="member: 1252">I would agree. We started seeing Buzzards here in South West Lancashire around 10 years ago. It was probably not too surprising as SW Lancs is bordered to the North by the Lake District and to the South by North Wales which had long been Buzzard strongholds. SW Lancs is almost devoid of substantial woodland, apart from pheasant rearing woods and the only other real private area that existed at this time was Knowsley Safari Park. It was here that they gained a foothold. Within a few years they started to spread, and they quickly became a common sight over the keepered areas of SW Lancs. To the keepers credit the Buzzard seems to have been left alone, and the Pheasant rearing woods are still commonly used for nesting by Buzzards. They are now a common site, and this year I have a pair nesting in my steet only 50 yards from the roadside in a small line of trees lining a ditch only 20 feet up from the ground! We will have to see if other species are allowed to expand in a similar way. I personally doubt it. Red Kites maybe, but the Marsh Harrier here in the shooting estates of Lord Derby, Sefton and Leverhulme will not be tolerated. Old habits die hard.</blockquote>