An article in the West Sussex County Times is reporting the illegal shooting of a buzzard in West Sussex last week.
The buzzard was found critically injured on Wednesday 17th May 2017 by two girls walking their dog in a field near Balcombe railway station.
The buzzard was taken to the Rangers Lodge Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre in Colgate where its wounds were cleaned and antibiotics were administered. It was then taken to a vet where it was decided its injuries were too severe for survival and the bird was euthanised.
While we were doing some background searching on this case, we stumbled across another report in the same newspaper of another buzzard that had been found shot in March.
A member of the public found the buzzard critically injured in woodland in Rowhook on Tuesday 7th March 2017. She commented: “I heard a shot which seemed quite close. Ten minutes later my dogs were sniffing around the base of a tree and wouldn’t come away from it. As I approached I could see what I thought was a dead pheasant. To my astonishment whatever it was moved and it wasn’t a pheasant but a buzzard”.
The bird was taken to Rangers Lodge Wildlife Rescue Centre but its injuries were too severe and the bird was euthanised by a vet.
The RSPB is offering a £1,000 reward for information that leads to a successful conviction. Either call the Police on 101 or call the RSPB Investigations Team on 01767-680551.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Yes the illegal killing of protected raptors is at an all time low.
What would it have been like when it wasn’t?
Funnily enough I think it would have been exactly like the present time.
It really seems like open season on Buzzards.
We need drastic political change now.
Seems to me that Natural England giving out licences to kill buzzards has undermined their protected status.
Natural England stink bigtime. They wouldn’t even issue a relocation licence when a pair of Mute swans were having rocks thrown at them every day by yobs and schoolboys.
Anything with a hooked beak seems to suffer and under a Tory government very little will be done.
It actually surprises me how few Buzzard cases are reported in this blog, because any gamekeeper with a few drinks in him will tell you that far more Buzzards are shot than any other raptor.
game keepers and those who love to shoot most wildlife feel secure in the fact that they will never be prosecuted. These people are out early shooting protecting pheasant shoots and I believe they are addicted to shooting. With Natural England handing out licences to kill birds of prey and badgers this is giving those people a gree light to shoot away. [Ed: rest of comment deleted as off topic]