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Re: Kestrels



Hi all,
Kestrels have maintained a small breeding population near downtown Raleigh for
many years. Twice during the 1980s I had to rescue fledgling kestrels as they
tried to make their first flights from a nest in a drain pipe high up a wall in
the Glenwood Towers Home for Seniors. I was able to save one bird and move it to
safe quarters, but the next season a bird had crashed into the entrance door
glass window and sustained a broken wing. The injury was permanent and the bird
became a program animal for the Raleigh Parks Nature Program where I worked.
Still I counted 3 other fledglings that year that had successfully left the
nest. That nest site, or one close to it, remains today as I found birds in the
vicinity on this year's Spring Bird Count. Another pair inhabits downtown
Raleigh near Shaw University. I still see them regularly. A third pair has
traditionally nested along Capitol Boulevard, although I haven't seen them for a
couple of years. Thay had nested at the abandoned Farmer's Market, and also near
Harris Wholesale. Finally, I saw an immature Kestrel at Anderson Point Park
about 2 weeks ago...hunting grasshoppers in the wildlife meadow. We have a
nestbox for Kestrels there...perhaps next year.
John Connors @ NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Clyde Sorenson wrote:

> All,
>
> The kestrel Patrick Coin saw along Hillsboro St in Raleigh may have been
> the female of the pair that has nested for the last four years in the
> high-rise apartment building behind the K-mart on Western Blvd. I watch
> them all summer from my office on the extreme western edge of the NCSU
> campus. last week one of our grad students and I watched the male of the
> pair doing some spectacular aerobatics to avoid air piracy from a pair
> of crows harassing it. The female watched from a powerline behind my office.
>
> I saw another female kestrel on a powerline wire near the southern Wake-
> Johnston County line on Old Stage Road on Saturday.
>
> Take care,
>
> Clyde Sorenson
> Clayton and Raleigh, NC