DRAMATIC video shows the luckiest buzzard in Britain survive a near-miss with a lorry that comes close enough to dislodge a feather.
The raptor flies from a hiding place in roadside bushes and straight into the path of Aaron Boss Hemstead.
The bird of prey’s incredible power and agility save it from becoming roadkill despite coming within inches of the truck travelling at almost 50mph.
Quickly sensing the danger the buzzard is able to perform a lightning-fast turn and race skywards. But the buzzard comes so close a feather can clearly be seen flying off.
The incident happened on Heath Road just after a roundabout near Warboys, Cambridgeshire on Friday at around 1:30pm.
Aaron posted the video to a closed closed Facebook group saying “Driving down the road and a pterosaurs flew out on me.”
The video shows Aaron from Aaron’s mobile mobility maintenance driving down the A141 just after coming off the roundabout.
Aaron continues to gain speed reaching a high of 47mph.
Suddenly the buzzard swoops out from foliage on the left hand side of the road. The buzzard is flying just inches above the road as it cuts across Aaron’s HGV.
The bird of prey then appears to have its talons out as it desperately tries to evade the HGV.
The buzzard eventually regains control of his flight and escapes the HGV and ascends into the distance.
One commenter said: “Call the air traffic control and blame them.”
Second commenter added: “The truck disturbed it!”
Another wrote: “What was that? A buzzard? I think you made the ‘pterosaurs’ up you cheeky monkey.”
Aaron today said that he had never encountered something like this before.
He said: “It was so big, at first I did not know what it was, but my initial reaction was to hard brake straight away.
“If I didn’t react so quick the impact would of been a lot worse and the bird may not of been so lucky. I’ve seen big birds flying around as we live in farm land, but never had this situation before.”
Bird of prey expert Roxanne from Elite Falconry in Fife, believes that the buzzard’s behaviour is one of two outcomes.
Roxanne said: “One – the buzzard has already been hit by a car and is on the floor, was given a spook by the truck and flew up l when it came past, just with unlucky positioning.
“Or two – it has a kill of its own, or road kill at the side of the road and is feeding, gets a spook by the big truck, and again flies up spooked in an unfortunate direction.”
Roxanne said roads were an irresistible draw for the scavengers like buzzards and kites.
But she added: “They often misjudge the speed of the vehicle and worse yet, are thoroughly unprepared for the violent air turbulence caused by the vehicle, so they take off a fraction late.
“They don’t have full control because of the turbulence and the end result is they become roadkill just like the food item they were feeding on.
“Roads are a disastrous and devastating danger to a multitude of wildlife including our rare, endangered and iconic species.”
