Kestrel Nest Box Adjustments & First Visitors!

This weekend, I made some adjustments to both kestrel nest boxes. Kestrel box 2, on the barn, originally had a camera mounted right up inside the box, but it was not giving the image I wanted as I could not see the outside of the box and I felt I would not only miss any birds coming to check it out, but also I would not get the best perspective if I do get a kestrel nesting there. I now have a Sony high res camera from HandyKam, with a wide angle lens on it. This gives the perspective I was looking for. I screwed a batton out from the top of the box, so I could mount the camera a little way away.

The camera needed to be protected from the weather, so I housed it in a little takeaway plastic container….

I tied a bit of camouflage netting around the camera and batton to try to conceal it a little….. not sure how successful that was, but I am really pleased now with the image from this camera. The IR is pretty strong as well, giving a good night view as well.

I put the camera onto i-catcher today (the motion detection software) to see if anything visited. Here is a clip of today’s visitors!