Do buzzards fly for fun?

One of life's great pleasures is lying back on a sunny summer afternoon watching buzzards tracing circles in the sky. I can spend hours this way and I have noticed that buzzards will sometimes ignore prey that is clearly visible to me.

It may be that the buzzard knows the rabbit is too close to its burrow to be worth the effort of stooping but isn't it just possible that flying is fun as well as work. Young mammals are known to play and their parents sometimes join in so why not birds?

Does anyone have an opinion? I'm no ornithologist, just an observer of the life around me. Another example can be found at my other blog

Categories: Birds, Birdwatching