I was thrilled today to see a male kestrel sitting in my kestrel box! This box is mounted up on a barn on my neighbour’s field, at the very end of my garden. I put it up last February and within a couple of weeks, I had a pair of kestrels showing a lot of interest early in the year. They mated within view of the camera and even started making a little scrape inside the box. Then, as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared. I saw the adults with a couple of youngsters in the summer, so I knew they had bred nearby. All year, I have been hoping that they may return this season and take another look. As you can imagine, seeing a male appear again today has been tremendously exciting.
Kestrels start breeding in April / May, but hopefully if they start showing an interest in this box now, then there will be a greater chance of them taking up residency later in the Spring. I thought this male looked possibly like a youngster. The head, which is slate grey in the adult, seemed a little speckled on this individual. I managed to capture a little bit of footage from this visit. He stayed around, very relaxed, for around half an hour. I will be keeping a very close eye on the box from now on… keep your fingers crossed. It would be amazing if they chose to breed here in 2012!
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