Kestrels

Thanks to everyone for posting their kestrel sightings on the blog - it really helps with the monitoring of breeding pairs. Most of the birds that intend to breed are now paired up and quite often the male will be mate-guarding the female by following her around, making nesting pairs more readily noticed. By the end of the month the females become very hard to see, but the presence of an adult male almost certainly indicates a breeding pair in the vicinity. Last year there were only 14 nests with an additional 8 territorial individuals, which were mostly one year old birds. This year there appear to be more sightings inland especially the Rosebush to Puncheston area, and at least seven nest boxes have been used by kestrels as a regular roost site.