Kestrel Staredown

Walkin' the Walk

By Mark Thorne, more below

If it’s any consolation, you’d never get close enough to see them well without a blind, as they are really skittish.  The owners put up a Kestrel box years ago and forgot it was there.  I stumbled on it a month ago when chasing the Kestrel pair along a high tension power line right of way. I couldn’t get closer than 200 ft. from them before they would take off (see the fuzzy 05-25-11 photos already on HBC website).

 

I returned to set up a blind on the power line slope last Sunday (26^th) 50 feet from the nest, and even that close with a decent telephoto I had to heavily crop the photos. I sat cramped in the blind for 7 hours, and the birds were so tuned to my presence I had to close all the ventilation openings and tighten the scoop around the lens so that they were comfortable going in and out of the nest box. They knew I was there, but as long as they didn’t see motion they were fine.

 

I didn’t have to wonder if or how far along they were in the breeding process, as the very first photo I took was of the female removing one of (her?) dead chicks from the nest. After that it was a non stop feeding process all day long. A very, very slow process: adult in, 45 minutes to an hour later it came out; 15-20 minutes later an adult went back in with more food, emerging after another hour; repeat. They hunt from perches on the high tension lines and poles, and although Northeast Utilities has not cleared the area below the lines in about ten years, there’s a great food source both under the wires and in the dung-filled pastures: mice, small mammals, dragonflies, moths, grasshoppers, small birds… everything Kestrels love. The crows harass the larger birds of prey (red tails and t-vultures), but seem to leave the Kestrels alone.

 

I took a couple hundred shots, but many were near misses, as I couldn’t tell with my blind vents closed when they were coming or going. Funny thing was that while I was there Turkeys were landing just outside my blind and making a racket.  Thanks to repellent the bugs were tolerable, but the stifling heat and cramps and bruises and waiting was mind numbing… and worth it.  Enjoy the photos – I plan to get more.

 

Mark Thorne