Strange action from a buzzard

A buzzard circled low about 50 meters outside the liana screen. The big bird side-slipped around a medium-size tree and then a smaller tree and settled onto the top of the southern levee. It then stepped cautiously down the side of the levee, as though sneaking up on something. I have never before seen a sneaky buzzard; usually, one will just land close to road kill, walk up and begin pulling off pieces of fur and meat.

Not this buzzard. This one crept down to the edge of the water and tenuously stretched its neck between leaves of some big, green plant. Then it pulled back its head and extended its wings, as though making itself appear larger than it was. It did the neck-stretching and the wing-extension again and then dipped its head and flipped something onto the levee.

A fish? Had to be. Dead, unfortunately. I say unfortunately because we don’t want dead fish floating on the pond. Dead fish are turtle food and alligator food and should be found and eaten before becoming buzzard food.

The buzzard walked to the dead thing and beaked it up. The dead thing flashed white momentarily, white like a fish’s belly. The buzzard carried the dead fish into a hedge row, I imagine for afternoon meal. I had never seen a buzzard carry off its find, certainly had not seen one find a hiding place in which to eat.

More weird Florida stuff.