Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Damn Kestrels !!

Sooo,, it started out early this Spring. A pair of kestrels decided that a large Pine tree about 30' from our house was going to be their nesting spot. They flew around, giving their Kestrel Yakyakyak sound all the time while slowly getting ready for their nesting. At first, I loved it. So cool seeing them every day was a real treat. But I started to notice a real decrease in my bird sightings at my 4 feeders. Being the only year round resident here on this section of the Lake, I pull in tons of birds. Then the killings began to really take a toll - both the renters next door and myself began to find small bird parts on our lawns. I no longer had any birds at my feeders, even my Hummingbirds were not safe. As I stood on my deck enjoying the view of a Hummingbird, I got to see it plucked from the sky 6 feet in front of me. The pair hatched out 3 young ones and the day long Yakking was annoying as they trained them to hunt and dive. We no longer had any squirrels, chipmunks, hummingbirds and small birds. Even the Starlings and Grackles moved out. They managed to kill and eat a male Cardinal from a pair that have hung around our place for 4 years. Finally, about the end of August, they moved further down the Lake to new Hunting Grounds, but swing by our place every couple days to check for prey. The question now is, are we going to become an annual breeding/rearing location? Are we destined to forever not have song birds, hummingbirds and Chipmunks because they are around. We still don't have any birds at our feeders.

I don’t know what a Kestrel is , but if it was ruining my joy
I would have used a 22 to dispose of the problem
Kenneth

Pellet rifle

I thought kestrels ate like crickets and grasshoppers and such? Nothing really big. Guess I was misinformed

My experience with other raptors would tell me that YES they’ll keep your place in their rotation, especially if they find a veritable buffet of choices at your feeders. 😉

We love to watch the wildlife but when we condition wild animals we put them at a disadvantage in many different ways. Whether it’s feeding seed during the spring or congregating multiple birds and their waste to not bringing feeders in at the appropriate times we can do the wildlife harm with our best intentions.

Yep.

I can't believe they got his squirrels....

Our kestrels here are stone cold killers. I’ve watched them take mourning doves out of the air and it is a violent violent intentional midair collision that always ends in a shower of feathers.

It’s a badass bird that punches well above its weight!

Ours here aren't that big.

I'd take the kestrels over the other birds...

But they are my favorite bird.

Ours are a bit smaller than a starling!

Clearing out the Starlings is a nice bonus. I like feeding song birds but seeing them cleared out to watch the Kestrel raise their young would be worth it to me.

Try not feeding the songbirds for a few weeks and see if the Kestrel move on when the easy targets over the “bait pile” are gone.

We get Sharp-shinned hawks over the bird feeders here occasionally but they’re isn’t enough woods to keep them here.

You could hire a tree service to remove the nest, and maybe put some chicken wire or something around the nest site to hopefully move them along.

S.S.S

Hunting doves over a motorized decoy we had kestrels swoop in to strike it several times this year. I found it odd they’d kill a bird the same size as themselves but I guess they do. We’re covered up with them around here, every other kind of hawk and hoot owl too.

Here’s one of the ones we have here I picked up in the field that hit a power line. Not much bigger than a dove.

Ours are about the size of the mourning doves they hunt. They aren’t big, in fact they are one of the smallest of our raptors along with the Merlin, but they pack a hell of a lot of power into their little frame. They don’t “carry” the dove off after colliding with it, once it’s stunned or dead on the ground the Kestrel stands on it and begins to feed. If they are supporting chicks I’ve watched one bring meat back to the nest while the other feeds and stands guard. I’ve found several dead Kestrels that were apparently involved in a high speed chase that they miscalculated and hit a fence, wire or window.

Cool!

Cool pic.

If I had the time and the space I’ve always thought that falconry would be something fun to get into.

I took it to the animal rescue place in the southern part of the country down toward San Antonio. I figured why not???