Kestrel in garden kills starling – what do kestrels eat?
Curtains for kestrels?
The form of a hovering Kestrel is unmistakable to most of us, but this once common bird of prey now finds itself in serious trouble. Liam Creedon reports
Spotting a Kestrel hovering above the carriageway, oblivious to the traffic screaming by just metres below, can always be relied upon to break up the monotony of a motorway journey.
Rapt in acute, unbreakable concentration, the bird seems to cheat the laws of physics, remaining motionless in the buffeting wind, never deterred from the task of scouring intently for its next fast-food fix of Field Vole.
The incredible hovering technique described by poet Ted Hughes as “steady as a hallucination in the streaming air”, is made possible by countless minute adjustments and is an aerobatic display surpassed by no other bird.
But over the last few years their cruciform shapes suspended above the roadside have begun to disappear. They have disappeared too from our parks, villages, playing fields and un-loved wastelands.
For the Kestrel has quietly, and without much media fanfare for such a well-known bird, suffered an alarming population collapse. The bird has declined by around 30% in the last 25 years alone and is now listed as a species of conservation concern across Europe.
The falcon was, until recently, our most common and well-known bird of prey. Affections for it soared following Barry Hines’s hugely successful 1968 novel ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’ which charted the relationship between an alienated teenager and his pet Kestrel. Ken Loach’s film Kes, based upon Hines’s book, cemented the Kestrel’s place in the nation’s heart. The Kestrel was seen as approachable and knowable, unlike the psychotic staring Sparrowhawk and the all too rare Peregrine.
The Kestrel’s dramatic decline is doubly shocking as it was viewed as a species that had managed to adapt to the rapid modernisation of our landscape. The bird lived in our towns and cities and even managed to hunt in the most inhospitable strips of land between our very fastest roads.
The reason for the decline is unclear but our willingness to farm the Kestrel out of the landscape, a fate that has befallen many other species, is likely to be a major factor. Matt Stevens from the Hawk Conservancy Trust explains: “It’s difficult to be certain but there are a number of possible reasons. The most likely is a change in land management. Changing agricultural practices and agricultural intensification is likely to have had a major effect. Increased stocking densities of sheep and cattle on grasslands reduces grass length and results in fewer numbers of the small mammals Kestrels prey upon.
“The reduction of wild flower populations results in fewer insects and seeds which again means fewer small mammals for the Kestrel. Other factors include loss of hunting and nesting sites and widespread use of pesticides, which reduces populations of ‘weed’ species and invertebrates, which then impacts on species dependent on them for food. We have also seen a loss of rougher ‘marginal land’ which previously held populations of invertebrates and small mammals.”
It was this rough marginal land that made our motorway verges so attractive to habitat-starved Kestrels in the first place – they presented long strips of undisturbed grassland teeming with their favourite food, Field Voles.
But can the fate of our Kestrels be reversed?
Stevens thinks there’s still hope.
“A goal of halting the decline and maintaining a healthy population of Kestrels is perhaps the most suitable approach and one which may allow for an increase in the future,” he explains.
“A reversal of the decline of Kestrels is also likely to be reliant on a change in the way the UK landscape is managed. Greater importance will need to be placed on the quality of, and connectivity between, habitats to ensure that populations of all native flora and fauna improve.”
As ever with our wildlife, it seems farmers may hold the key to the Kestrels’ future, but in the meantime you can do your bit from the passenger seat too. The public is being asked to send in their Kestrel sightings to the Hawk Conservancy Trust to help build up the overall picture of how these wonderful falcons are faring.
:: To count a Kestrel visit www.kestrelcount.org. Kestrel Count runs until next year and is run by the Hawk Conservancy Trust
Article taken from silver surfers.com
Interesting as always George. How much are they suffering with this dreadful weather? The Somerset Levels will take years to recover and the hunting ground for birds of prey such as the kestrel must be finding their food source extremely difficult.
Regards Marian
You are right Marian. Think of all the drowned hibernating wildlife, bees, hedgehogs, etc., adding to the misery.Not a lovely thought at all…. Best wishes George
Opened blinds today to see a lot of blackbird feathers all over the garden, looking further down the garden a kestrel was eating its prey, took a couple of photos but went to living room window to get a clearer picture and it had flew away with what was left of carcass, on inspection of site all that was left was a few bones and beak of the blackbird was amazed how clinical the kestrel had been
Personally, I do admire predators. They don’t get food gifts and have to hunt, use tactics, stealth, speed, surprise for their food and if they get injured… Thanks for sharing, George
Great article George, and interesting observations. Thank you!
Thanks Africa, appreciate your comment. I did have a make a video at the time..VHS! But for the life of me I cannot find it amongst the scores of videos of my kids!!! Cheers George
Saw one trying to catch blue tits in Kilmarnock Willow Tree last week (Cumbria). Quite a comotion!
Now that is interesting, Kestrels generally they go for prey that is on the ground….it may have been a sparrowhawk? Thanks for that Rosie! Cheers G
I hd a kestral fly into my hegde scatter the sparrows inside it nd chase them out of the hedge never seen this type of behvior before
Probably a sparrowhawk Mr. Mann. Cheers, George
Interesting, but yesterday 29/11/2017, we saw 4 Kestrels at one point hovering above the gardens and woods at Albury Heath Surrey. Two were there for about an hour.
That sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing that. Cheers George
Kestrels thriving in Dordogne, France. This year lucky to have a pair nesting in an old barn raising three chicks. Seem to be bringing lizards and snakes as main food although plenty of shrews, mice etc here
Nice one Charles. Great news.Than is for sharing, George
Would a kestrel kill a woodpecker? I found a large pile of feathers on top of a little mound of wintering hostas.
Female sparrowhawk would.
Would a kestrel kill a woodpecker and leave a pile of feathers?
More likely a sparrowhawk female Linda.
Kestrels still seem to thriving where I live in the north east
That’s good news then Ronnie. Not so good where I live. Thanks for sharing cheers George
We had just had a juvenile female Kestrel roosting on our outside house lights for a few nights after finding her in my horses stable last week sheltering from the dreadful weather. My horse was most surprised, but settled when she realised what it was (she has Swallows pooing on her every summer as they nest above her! She flew out after a couple of minutes towards the house and we saw her every night and day thereafter, even though her roosting place was unusual to us, or is it because she’s young and still looking for somewhere suitable? On Monday evening around 6.30pm I was making my way to the horse and heard a bird of prey screech from the horses field, followed by a very surprised sounding pheasant that I could then hear flapping and flying away. As it was dark and I had just a headtorch, I didn’t see anything. Unfortunately, yesterday morning in daylight when I turned the horse into her field, I saw the Kestrel was lying dead close to the fence. I’m sure it’s the same one and it really saddened me. I could see her feathers directly under the fence as though she had been perched at the time of attack, and another area of her feathers a couple of feet into the field, and then another area of her feathers another couple of feet away further into the field. She had a hole in the right side of her stomach that I assumed was pecked out? Her feathers appeared to have been stripped from her head, neck and back, but her wing and tail feathers were intact. We have a Barn Owl box with regular yearly Barn Owls and Owlets, and the very large female of the young from last year visits and hunts in our field every day. We have also twice seen a juvenile Tawny Owl very near to our house, last Saturday, and this morning. My question is, what on earth killed her? Would either owl do this?
Hi Adele,
Have a look at my article about sparrowhawks https://nurturing-nature.co.uk/gardening-for-wildlife/the-secret-life-of-sparrowhawks-dvd/ as I suspect it may be a Tawny Owl and on the article is a link to a Tawny Owl and a Sparrowhawk DVD which I 100% recommend you see. Thanks for sharing, George
Hi George. Thank you for your reply. I watched the short film about the Sparrowhawk, and found it very interesting. It made me smile when the Blackbird swooped and the Sparrowhawk ducked! I will get the DVD’s for sure as I’d really like to see them. Thank you once again for the information and I hope you have a lovely Christmas. Adele
There is a very high chance that your kestrel was killed by a buzzard, here in N. Ireland buzzards have been known to take kestrel chicks from their nest and eat them,I was shown a long eared owls nest from which a buzzard killed and eat two of the three chicks.
Nature can be cruel. Predators eat predators. Thanks for sharing Cheers George
Thank you. There is a family of Kestrels nesting here at the moment of writing. The Kestrels have nested at this same site for about ten years returning at the beginning of each Springtime. The site where they nest is a compound containing industrial units. A wall standing about sixty feet is sheer vertical and there is a hole in the wall near the top where the Kestrels nest. It is mid-June 2021 as of writing and this year the Kestrels have produced two chicks. They began laying eggs roughly around Easter. When the chicks emerged from the nest they could not fly but hopped about the ground. You could see the parents flying above and calling. The site is a small industrial site that is sunk in woodland. In other words, woods and fields and contain the site. Unfortunately, there are cars coming in and out of the site most of the day. The two chicks I managed to throw on one of the roofs close to where the nest is. The parents brought in food and what was most noticable was the food was chiefly ‘day old chickens’ and voles. There are people living on the surrounding land who keep chickens. The parents mainly the male brings in these ‘day old chicks’ and then wedge them between the corrugated cladding on one of the roofs. The parent could be seen fairly regularly perching on this particular roof and it soon became obvious the parents where using this roof as a larder. Magpies would occaisionally fly on to that particular roof and almost immediately were ‘divebombed’ by the Kestrel parents. Both chicks are now flying. And what is most interesting is seeing all four Kestrels soaring high on the currents of warm air rising high in the sky and calling. When the Kestrels are at this high altitude it is very easy to mistake them for a Sparrowhawk. It is roughly three months since the Kestrels came back to the site to nest. The young are now very good flyers. I have helped them along by putting chicken wings from the supermarket onto the roof the Kestrels use as their larder. All four birds take the chicken wings and will perch in a tree watching the roof. It is three months or so since the Kestrels came back. Really great to watch. Thank you for this interesting page.
And thank you for sharing a wonderful story, Vincent! Best, George NN