Kestrel - Cowbar Nature

The kestrel belongs to the falcon family. It is a regular sight on Cowbar. It hovers over the grassland and cliff edge and rests in the allotment fields. It is an amber listed bird.
Kestrels have light brown feathers with dark spots. Male kestrels have blue grey heads while the females are all brown.
It’s difficult to photograph but has a familiar silhouette and movement when seen in the air. We think our photos are of the kestrel but birds such as the sparrowhawk, hobby and merlin can look similar.
We have often watched it hover then swoop and scoop a rodent out of the grass. It flies into the wind and uses its tail to hold its position in the air.
It eats mainly voles but will also take mice and shrews and even small birds – occasionally worms and insects.
They can catch several voles in succession and hide them to eat later. This means they are unlikely to have to roost at night on an empty stomach.
Kestrels will sometimes use their speed to ‘mug’ Barn Owls and steal the voles they have already killed.
They can spot a beetle from 50 metres away and can see ultra-violet light. This means they can detect urine trails left by rodents on the ground.
A kestrel’s ‘home range’ where it hunts can be up to 10 Km square and shared with other kestrels. It only defends the area immediately around its own nest.
They lay their eggs in natural cavities such as holes in trees and cavities on cliff faces. Sometimes they will use nests abandoned by other species.
They normally lay 4 to 5 eggs in April / May. The chicks hatch after a month and spend five weeks in the nest before fledging.
Kestrel numbers in the UK have fallen by half since 1970. This is partly due to reduced habitat for hunting and fewer places to nest. |More intense agricultural practices are also reducing the number of field voles that kestrels feed on. They need to eat 4 to 8 voles a day to survive.