A buzzard named Brenda has caused a school playground ban
Havering Council said its health and safety team has given "detailed advice to the academy trust which looks after the school", including things they can do to safely deter Brenda from swooping at people, including hiring a falconry expert who understands the bird's behaviour.The school's Head Teacher Stella McCarthy told the BBC they were trying to figure out a way to allow children to play outside where possible, including taking pupils to a nearby school for outdoor play and finding a different location for sports day."We had to think about how to risk assess this... it's quite an unusual situation, having to risk assess a buzzard," she said.
After accepting that "there was nothing we could do" to remove the bird of prey, the school decided to embrace her instead."The children named the bird Brenda and put out posters for protecting Brenda and looking after her... they've been writing stories, reports; next week they'll be doing newspaper articles, they've done artwork."As part of their learning, they even had a bird of prey expert visit the school - bringing with him a Chilean blue buzzard eagle called Guido.Expert Ross Hicking said: "Guido (can) help educate the children about what Brenda the buzzard is dong, why she's behaving like this, the natural habits of buzzards, to foster interest in birds of prey and also to teach them about conservation and what we can do to protect birds of prey in the wild."He also said that, while "99% of the time" buzzards would avoid people due to fear, Brenda's swooping could be connected with the nesting season.He also said that living in an area near to people meant that "she's a lot more comfortable around people and lot less fearful than most buzzards would be."
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