PotM Calendar
The Photo of the Month (see gallery) is a year-round calendar of wildlife and nature images with story contributions from visitors, friends and fellow photographers.
When it comes to nature photography, it's not only those exciting tales of high adventure that often accompany talent and skill for a fabulous result. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-timed shot or well-framed one can say as much about you as a photographer. So, if you'd like to showcase one of your pictures here, free, for one calendar month with a bio or personal account, then this page is for you.
The Remains of the Dead by Roger Cox
Berwick Basset, Winterbourne
With its 1.2m wingspan, the common buzzard is Britain’s largest and most widespread member of the hawk family. A frequenter of forests and fields, its mewing calls are often heard across rough grassland, moorland, hedged farmland, and in woodland canopies where it can sit patiently or effortlessly soar for hours over open country, sometimes in pairs, but always with an eye for opportunity.
When circling above on thermals, their heavily barred bodies and the five extended feathers on their slightly raised brown-banded wings give them a more aquiline appearance. Hence, in picturesque mountainous places like the Isle of Skye, locals refer to them as “tourist eagles,” a name derived from the many visitors who wrongly identify them as golden eagles.
Although too slow to chase most birds in the air, buzzards are quick, efficient, versatile, stoop-and-swoop predators, preying on rodents, rabbits, game birds, and even worms! However, a large part of their diet consists of carrion. Though far from being lazy hunters, they often accompany red kites and corvids as they peruse country lanes and motorways for a Smorgasbord of roadkill. As opportunistic scavengers, this morbid exploitation of casualties from the more callous side of motoring may not entirely sway us to admire their graceful gliding and superb hunting skills. Yet, for that one fault alone, they do play a vital disease-preventing role by removing dead and decaying remains from our roads, fields, and farmlands.
Special announcements or simple hellos. Place your message or link here as part of your PotM agreement. With eight places left for 2025, the PotM Calendar is closed until April 17th. To learn more about posting news, comments and events under a PotM agreement, see our Terms of Use page, where you can submit your photo (along with your story) during the last two weeks of every month.
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