Just to echo Rhiannon's comment on All the Birds of the Air; this is an excellent book if you can get hold of it (found mine in a skip in Coggeshall :-) The book is full of the names, lore and literature of British birds. Though the entry for the buzzard has little on its folklore it does list its various names and its hunting habits. The entry also says that, "By far the most fitting and descriptive name for the Buzzard is Gled, the glider, from Old English derivation... Watching the slow graceful gliding on the thermals it is hard to believe that the Buzzard does not itself take delight in its actions..."