On March 17, 2017, Dick Phillips and I checked all 18 boxes of the Delaware County American Kestrel Nestbox Project starting at nine o’clock in the morning. We traveled the fifty-mile route in Dick’s pickup truck that held his extension ladder. The boxes are always checked in mid-March every year in order to make sure all nest cavities have proper bedding.
Even though we clean out old bedding and add new every fall, European Starlings will excavate nest chambers before they build their grass nests, temporarily creating bare floors in boxes. The bedding product we use goes by the name “Premium Pine Shavings” and is sold by TSC, the Tractor Supply Company. On March 17, we found five boxes with bare floors that needed new bedding that we hand-tap to at least four inches deep.
Due to a threatening weather forecast, I left my camera at home, and before the morning was over, I had three reasons to regret that decision. One involved finding a gray Eastern Screech-Owl in a box. I could not tell if it was on eggs but its behavior was suspicious. As I have seen in others, the owl had pulled its feathers in tightly, its eyes were closed, and it leaned into the corner of the box. The leaning and flared feathers on the bedding makes me think it was hiding eggs. Dick and I used a hand mirror to inspect the site. We will check our boxes in two weeks, and hopefully, we will count owl eggs!
A second reason for regret, was finding a female kestrel on a dead starling. As I lifted the box’s lid, the kestrel wheeled around to assume a defensive posture off the starling. I gently closed the lid, and we decided not to bother her. She stayed in the box as we loaded the ladder and left. I hope she enjoyed her meal.
A third event was not too regretful since a photo was not needed. One kestrel nest held the first egg of the season! The earliest first kestrel egg during previous years is March 14. With the recent cold and windy days, the March 17 egg was a pleasant surprise, and I was scolded by a parent kestrel as I climbed the ladder to peek into its box. Five of the 18 boxes had diligent kestrels nearby on utility wires.
Well, that’s it for the beginning of the 2017 kestrel nesting season. Conserve on!