Crows & Buzzards

I still find it strange that I can't hear when it's raining when I'm inside my home.

After living off-grid in a static caravan in a field, now that we're in a new-build bungalow, I still spend most of my time with the doors and windows open. I crave the connection with nature and don't ever want to feel disconnected and cut off from it again, so keeping the doors open helps me in many ways. 

The other night, I could hear the distinctive cawcaw'ing of the Carrion Crow. Not just one or two as usual, but a whole murder of them. I went outside to see what was happening, I wondered if it might be a predator or them fighting over food. But it was just the shear amount of them, performing what was clearly a murmuration, I never even knew crows did that, above the trees behind our new home.

I watched them for a while, and watched as they took it in turns to descend over the cluster of trees that stand in the middle of a rolling field. And then I discovered what all the ruckus was about. Two buzzards soared out of the treetops and began circling. The crows all left and the buzzards came back to nest. 

Now I found this incredible for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, the carrion crows have been here for years. I've seen them when I've driven past this area, and now there is a new build estate in part of what was their turf, it hadn't put them off, they've been digging and scratching up the newly laid lawns of some of the houses. As is their absolute right, they were literally here first. They swoop around the place, and cawcaw at whomever they choose. They adapted when their home changed, took it in their stride and carried on. They move between the cluster of trees in the field behind our home, the open park behind the new estate and the woodland across the road.

Secondly, the buzzards are not usually here. Sure, they soar and glide and ride the thermals on clear warm days, but they usually nest in the woods in my field, to the north of the static caravan we have left. 

A few weeks after we moved here a neighbour shared that two buzzards had been spotted in the field, along with some roe deer (also usually living in the woodland at my static.) Now it seems they've moved in. And the carrion crows have been evicted. Watching them leave stirred something in me. I've spent months leaving a place I have loved for decades, carrying pieces of my old life into a new one. The crows and I had both lost something familiar. But the return of the buzzards has brought me so much comfort too. It feels like a confirmation that we're supposed to be here as much as they are.