General Discussion : FINALLY may have a pair of Kestrels

I own 64 acres in SE Indiana that I moved from mainly hay fields to native warm season grasses about 10 years ago.  Around that time I put up Kestrel boxes but was unsuccessful in attracting a pair.  During the winter I would ususally get a female that would hunt around the property, but never saw a male.

This winter a male established a territory and 2 days ago I saw a female.  Yesterday the female went into one of the houses several times and today I saw the pair mate.  The male has also gone into the house today.

Any suggestions on how to make the property more attractive to the pair and conversely anything to avoid?  I have put up hunting posts and/or left small trees in the field to hunt from.  I typically in the spring have to use lethal control of house sparrows and starlings in my bluebird, tree swallow and purple martin housing but am afraid that gun shots will scare the kestrels...be nice if they would include more house sparrows in their diet!  Any experience in how much distrurbance kestrels will accept?

Any and all info welcome...will record my data into the system shortly.

Thanks!

Comments:

Nu-Sun Cinema's picture

Hi David, One way you can make the property more attractive is to keep the grass shorter. Typically the Kestrels like pasture land but will hunt in longer grasses also. As far as the sparrows and starlings, once the Kestrels have astablished this teritory as their own they will control their nest box and protect the area. Definatly it is very important not to frequent the nest box area untill the Kestrels are well estabished. Definatly NO GUN SHOTS !! Hope this information helps and good luck.  We at Nu-Sun Cinema have been studying Kestrels for about 8 years. We also do a HD LIVE STREAM link to KESTREL KORNER at

http://www.nu-sun.com/html/kestrel_korner.html     Thanks Nu-Sun Cinema                                                          

Posted in General Discussion by davidmccarty 5 years 1 week ago.

 

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