Kestrel Nest Camera | Jan & Feb 2019 | Pairing up and Finding a Home

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January & February Update

Update: Pairing up and Finding a Home

What’s been happening this month

The kestrels that live around my art gallery and studio are looking for the perfect nest site to raise their young, but they’ve got competition from the resident barn owls and tawny owls who are looking for their own place to nest too. Read on to find out what happens in the ensuing ‘nest box wars’.

Click here for the very latest on their story in my March update.

Scroll down to see the paintings inspired by these nest camera studies.


 

February 25th 2019

Kestrels Invade ‘Beech Stump’ & Dig A Nest

Kestrels Preparing A Nest

What’s this? The cameras have caught the kestrels inside Beech Stump. I thought that this nest box was gong to be where to the tawny owls were going to nest!!! And this insolent female kestrel isn’t happy with the hollow that the tawny owls have dug. Watch as she tries to adjust the shape of it. She uses her wings and her claws to dig. Occasionally she goes back out to the box calls her mate for help. The kestrels have taken advantage of the fact that the tawnys are not in here at the moment…….. will they abandon where I thought they were going to nest and try to colonise this nest box instead?

Click the image above to play the video


 

February 24th 2019

Kestrels Confront Invading Barn Owls in the Skies

Kestrels Defending The Nest 

A battle has begun over the nest boxes in the garden. Competition for the best nest sites can be fierce at this time of year, as all the birds of prey are choosing where they want to nest at the same time. Watch the kestrels go for the attack after the barn owls swoop far too close to what they’d like to be their new nest site at Sycamore Stump.

Click the image above to play the video


February 16th 2019

Kestrels Choose Nest Site

Kestrel Courtship

Watch this video of Mr and Mrs Kestrel as they take a look at Sycamore Stump nest box. They have nested and raised their young here for the last few years now. Typically the male will choose a suitable nest site and then call for the female to come and view it. I’m hoping they will nest here again. Watch this lovely footage of them as they inspect this box for size.

Click the image above to play the video


February 3rd 2019

Kestrel Bond Still Strong 

Kestrel Courtship

The bond between the kestrels living in my garden is still very strong. Look at how tenderly the male is feeding the female in this clip. This is very different to last year, when this female was really very aggressive. She used to rip the food right out of his beak! She is so much more docile now.

Click here to read my 2018 Kestrel Cam Blog to see how grumpy she used to be!

Click the image above to play the video

 


January 24th 2019

Love In The Snow

Kestrel Courtship

Last year I learned that kestrels begin their courtship whilst there is still snow on the ground and this was confirmed again after a fall of snow here in Yorkshire last night. The pair are sharing a catch and Mr Kes is showing us that he still has the touch when it comes to wooing. Watch them touch beaks in what can only be described as a loving manner. It means that they already have a strong bond which bodes well for the breeding season to come.

Click on the image above to play the video above

 


Kestrels In My Garden

The History of Mr & Mrs Kes

Stories from a live kestrel nest camera

If you’re new to their story, the male kestrel, Kes, has lived in my garden for 12 years. He has a colourful history: a few years ago I discovered on the cameras that he had two females on the go at once and even raised two sets of chicks. Last year he successfully raised two chicks with a new mate, after his long-term partner, Mrs Kes, died two years ago.

Click here to read the story of Mr Kes’s infidelity.

Click here to read their story during 2018’s breeding season.

 


Kestrel Artwork

My Kestrel Paintings

Inspired By Watching These Kestrels

My webcams help me to research these birds for my paintings. Here are a few of the paintings inspired by watching and learning about this bird pair up close.

kestrel painting
Kestrel Portrait, Original Painting

 

Kestrel | Art Print | Shop Now

 

Read More

What happens next in my Kestrel Nest Camera:

March 2019 Update – Courting and Mating: https://www.robertefuller.com/kestrel-nest-camera-courting-and-mating-march-update/

 

How I set up the surveillance cameras for my kestrel nest camera

Click here to read how I set up the systems to watch these kestrels: 

https://www.robertefuller.com/laying-a-network-of-surveillance-cameras-to-watch-kestrels-in-the-garden/

 

Follow my other nest cameras:

Barn Owl Nest Camera 2019:  https://www.robertefuller.com/category/nestcams/barn-owl-nest-camera/

Tawny Owl Nest Camera 2019: https://www.robertefuller.com/category/nestcams/tawny-owl-nest-cameras/

Read more about my adventures with kestrels here:

Read about the time I watched Kestrels clash with Short Eared owls: https://www.robertefuller.com/kestrels-clash-with-short-eared-owls-in/

 


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