Starting in 2019 I have been road trapping Kestrels as well as Red Shouldered Hawks and Red Tailed Hawks in southern Maryland January-March to gain a better understanidng of our local populations and to see if birds use the same wintering grounds year after year. Today I recaptured a male kestrel that I originally banded on Feb 18 2019! This has been my first recapture of any species since I started this project in Jan 2019! This male was recaptured about 500 yards from his original banding location and the landowners did not have any kestrel sightings through the spring or summer in 2019. This bird likely is breeding somewhere farther north but favors this farm for its wintering grounds. Pretty fun day today! Unfortunately I have not had anyone else recapture any of the birds I have banded but fingers crossed one of my banded birds will end up in someones nest box!
Gene
Gene-
where in MD are you? I grew up in Frederick but live in VA now and monitor 80+ kestrel boxes in N W Virginia. We will keep an eye out for your birds!
Hello Alan,
I'm down in Calvert County about 45 minutes southeast of DC along the Chesapeake Bay. Thanks for keeping a lookout! We did have another recapture this winter of a bird I banded in 2019 in addition to the one i mentioned above. This one was less than 300 yards away from where I originally banded it. Its a very small data set but it is showing kestrels can have wintering ground fidelity! 2020 was a slow winter for trapping this year as we only captured 9 kestrels compared to 16 in 2019. I'd be willing to bet it was the mild winter we had. A lot of times kestrels in my area were still able to eat insects and did not seem as eager to come to the trap.
What part of WV are you monitoring in? Thats a decent number of boxes! How has your success been?
I have about 17 boxes up in Calvert County but havent had any kestrels use them since 2015. Even then i only had 1 nestbox used. Most of my box checks now find starlings.