Een buizerdnest Buteo buteo in een Utrechtse hoogspanningsmast

While searching for Eurasian Hobby nests on electricity pylons, a Common Buzzard nest with three almost fledged nestlings on a pylon in the province of Utrecht was discovered on 15 June 2003. All three nestlings were still present on 21 June; on 25 June, only two fledglings were seen in the lower section of the pylon, having trouble of steadying themselves in high winds. This is the first case of a Common Buzzard breeding on a pylon in the province of Utrecht (central Netherlands). Breeding on pylons in The Netherlands was first recorded by the Dutch Raptor Group in 1999 (2x, based on 1691 nests), and annually since then: lx in 2000 (N=1721 nests), 4x in 2001 (N=1733), 1x in 2002 (N=1769) and 1x in 2003 (N=404). All cases so far had been recorded in the western and northermost part of The Netherlands, i.e. open farmland (mainly dairy) colonised by Common Buzzards in the 1980s and 1990s, where nesting sites (trees, bushes, lanes) are scarce.