I cannot quite believe my luck… the male and female kestrel have been around the nest box for much of the last two days. The jackdaws have continued to show an interest, but have been chased off by the male. On one occasion, the female sat tight inside the nest box as the jackdaws looked in. They eventually gave up as the female was not going to come out! Today, both male and female have spent a lot of time at the nest box and when they have not been in the nest box, they have been in and around the field right outside my office… I am in heaven!
Saw some really interesting behaviour today. The male has been creating the hollow or ‘scrape’ in the nest box. Kestrels do not make a nest, as such, but create a small depression in which to lay their eggs. I put some leaf litter, mixed with hay in the bottom of this nest box and he was shuffling around in it and then ‘stamping’ in areas, pushing some of the materials outwards and then ‘patting’ them down… fascinating! I had the camera on live view today and recorded from that, so have a lot of footage. I am trying to work out the best way to convert as this video looks a little pixellated.
Here are a selections of screen shots from today….
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and a little clip of the male making the scrape….