Pledge for Nature - Kestrels

This weekend we put up our nest box with its perch, hoping a kestrel will hunt from this soon. This is in conjunction with North Devon Biosphere.

#PledgeForNature. It is in a fantastic location with great hunting across #culmgrassland.. Read more about kestrels here; 

Kestrels are masters of stationary flight, and hover-hunt extensively. They also hunt from perches, altering their hunting method to suit prey type, weather conditions and energy requirements. On farmland, kestrels have learned to watch farming operations, waiting for the tractors to flush prey.

Voles are, by far, the most important food for kestrels, although they regularly take other small mammals such as woodmice and shrews, small birds, insects and earthworms. In towns, they take birds more frequently because of lower availability of small mammals.

A kestrel is capable of locating its prey at remarkable distances - it can see and catch a beetle 50m from its perch. Kestrels need to eat 4-8 voles a day, depending on the time of the year and the amount of energy-consuming hover-hunting they do. They have a habit of catching several voles in succession and caching some for later.

The stored food is usually eaten the same day, just before dusk. This reduces the risk of the bird having to go to roost on an empty stomach.