In April 2017, the Wildlife Center admitted a male kestrel [patient #17-0435] with a broken wing. The kestrel was found by researchers Lance and Jill Morrow in Rockingham County; they had actually banded the kestrel a year before in that same area. After three months of rehabilitation, the kestrel was released, about 16 miles away from its original banding location. In May 2018, Lance and Jill contacted the Center with good news on former patient #17-0435!
History of Kestrel Nest Box #76 - as of May 13, 2018
This week we got some good news from our “hard luck” kestrel box # 76, though the story really starts two years ago!
2016
We installed the box on February 20, 2016. During our winter trapping efforts, we captured a male kestrel near the box with a mouse-baited trap on March 27, 2016. We checked him over, gave him a new bird band and released him. In April, he and his mate laid at least one egg inside the box. By the time we checked it on April 23, we found that the kestrel egg had recently been destroyed, presumably by starlings. Starlings took over the box and persistently constructed grass nests that we removed five times that summer; we hoped the kestrels would make another nest attempt, but they didn’t.
2017
The following spring, we checked the box on April 13 and captured an unbanded female inside the box, sitting on four eggs with another egg in her. We banded and released her. Then we noticed a male kestrel hopping around on the ground with a broken wing within 10 yards of the box. He was easy to catch since he couldn’t fly and was weak. By reading his band number we learned he was same male that was trapped near the box in 2016. We called The Wildlife Center of Virginia (WCV) in Waynesboro and arranged for volunteer Sandi Rose to meet us in the parking lot at Tractor Supply in Harrisonburg to take the injured kestrel to WCV for rehabilitation. The Center vets found an open spiral fracture of right ulna, a left major patagial ligament tear, dehydration, and anemia. The veterinarians expertly healed his injuries and deemed him ready for release after three months. They contacted us to ask where he’d been injured so they could release him at the same site. By that point, another pair of kestrels had moved into his territory. To remove the possibility of conflict with the new pair of kestrels, we suggested a release site outside of our study area. In July, the WCV released him in Keezletown, about 16 miles from where he was injured.
After the male was injured and was sent to rehab, he obviously wasn’t around to feed his incubating mate, so she was forced to abandon the clutch. Normally, the male hunts and feeds the female during the 30-day incubation period. Since the box was not being defended, the kestrel eggs were depredated within a week. The nest box was taken over by starlings. We removed three starling eggs on April 29, 2017 and flattened out their grass nest in hopes that another pair of kestrels would use the box.
The box was still empty on May 10, but on May 29 when we opened the box, there were three kestrel eggs! This second pair of kestrels ended up laying four eggs and all hatched. Doug Rogers took some wonderful photos of the parents bringing food for the young.
What dampened the success of this 2nd nesting was the phone call from the landowner about a week after the young had fledged in late July. He notified us that one of the four young kestrels was hit and killed on the road near the box, probably during her first flight.
2018
This year on May 7, we captured a male kestrel inside the box incubating five kestrel eggs; we found that he was already banded (which is not uncommon in our study area).
Upon reading the band number, we were delighted when we realized this was the same male with the broken wing that had been rehabbed by WCV and released in Keezletown in 2017! He had flown the 16 miles to return to his territory and was again using nest box # 76. A few days later we captured the female while she incubated the eggs and she too was banded. Her band number indicated that she was his mate during the ill-fated first clutch in 2017. These two kestrels are together again (possibly for the third year in a row). Hopefully they will succeed in box # 76 this year.
Thank you: Wildlife Center of Virginia, Sandi Rose, the Ruffs (landowners) and Doug Rogers.
— Lance & Jill Morrow
Shenandoah Valley Raptor Study Area
95 kestrel boxes
Lance and Jill both work with raptors within the Shenandoah Valley Raptor Study Area (SVRSA), which encompasses approximately 144 square miles of northern Rockingham and southern Shenandoah Counties of Virginia. Lance and Jill monitor and band adult and nestling kestrels in 90+ nest boxes, and also band dozens of barn owl nestlings each year. More information on the study area with aerial photos, select publications, and overview of their research on raptors is available here.