Winneshiek County kestrel nesting experiment termed a success

Raptor Resource Project is terming a success a pilot project to install kestrel nest boxes along rural gravel roads in Winneshiek County.

Last fall, volunteers for the Raptor Resource Project installed six nest boxes along or nearby 310th street in rural Winneshiek County.  This spring the volunteers discovered one nest had been tipped over and a second nest had been vandalized.  However, four were still standing and three contained nesting kestrels.

Raptor Resource Project officials say they will add cement to the base of the poles to keep them stabilized in the future.  But they say their pilot project proved that rural ditches can be used to provide habitat for nesting kestrels.

The American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is a small falcon that is in decline throughout some parts of its range. There are a number of theories about the kestrel's decline: HawkWatch International's list of factors includes development and reforestation of preferred habitats, poisoning, and the West Nile virus. We focused on the loss of grassland in Iowa, which lost 2,615 square miles of potential grassland habitat between 1990 and 2010 alone.  

RRP director Bob Anderson refers to ditches as voleways and believes they could help provide prey for kestrels.  The ditches are seeded in grasses and voles feed on grass.  It is very common to observe kestrels and other birds of prey perched on poles and wires above or just plain hovering over the man made voleways of country roads and major highways.

Winneshiek County alone has over 1,000 miles of road, including over 800 miles of gravel roads.  That is a lot of potential habitat for plants and wildlife, especially birds like kestrels, and other bird species.

Raptor Resource is thanking Winneshiek County Engineer Lee Bjerke for allowing the group to conduct its experiment.