At the end of last week we returned to our new Kestrel site, three
weeks after finding five tiny newly hatched young. On arrival at the site, a
natural tree hole in a large Ash, we were greeted by two large chicks peering
down on us. Hoping the other chicks were at the back of the hole, we climbed up
to unfortunately find just the two of them. Both of the chicks were quite well
feathered and likely to survive, and being so advanced enabled us to sex them
by looking at the colour of their tail feathers (grey for males, brown for
females).
This brood aside, on the whole it’s been good news, Kestrels seem to have had a very
successful breeding season around the valley this year with a good number of birds being
seen across the site - just this last week we've started to see fledged broods at Wheldrake and North Duffield Carrs - with six recently fledged chicks at both sites.
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