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News Archive

Redfooted Falcons leave Europe - 2007-11-07

Peter Fehervari from Hungary has reported that the last Redfooted Falcons left by the first week of October. They didn't count as many birds as expected but this may have been due to a cold front in mid-September. So far that have had about 100 resightings of colour marked birds, including three observations from Sweden, Belgium and Romania.

So now it is up to us to keep our eyes open for migrating Redfooted Falcons, and when we do see them, to make sure that we check their legs to see if they are ringed or not. If you see any colour ringed birds, please report these to me as soon as you can.

First Lesser Kestrels arrive in South Africa - 2007-10-21

The first Lesser Kestrels have arrived at their roosts in South Africa. Suna and Edwin Engelbrecht have been looking out for the kestrels at the Koffiefontein roost in the Free State since 14 October 2007. They saw the first 10 Lesser Kestrels at the roost on the evening of 20 October 2007.

Dorathea Badenhorst of Colesberg reported around 40 Lesser Kestrels at the Colesberg roost in the Northern Cape a day later, on 21 October 2007.

Please keep a close watch at the roosts near you, as I expect all the roosts to be occupied in the next two to three weeks. And a reminder, please remember to add your sightings to the Natural World database.

List of Migrating Kestrel roosts - Appeal for help from volunteers - 2007-10-17

Each year, between 64 and 84 roosts are counted in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi but there are at least 67 towns where roosts have been recorded but not counted and most probably many more unknown roost sites. To improve our kestrel population estimates, we require volunteers to visit roost sites to count roosting kestrels or look for new active roost sites to count. We also need more volunteers to count in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Angola and Zambia. A list of known roost towns is

Take a look at complete list of known and recorded roost sites or download the same in Adobe Acrobat Format.

Migrating Kestrel Project poises for the new season - 2007-10-12

The Migrating Kestrel Project volunteers are gearing up for the new season, as they await for the kestrels to arrive at the roost this year. Normally the Lesser Kestrel population start arriving from mid-October, while the Amur Falcons arrive from early November. Key activities for the project this season include:

Recording arriving and departure dates
Counting at all the roost on the core count day - 19 January 2008
Monthly counts at roosts

The project is still looking for volunteers in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. This year all volunteers will also be supporting the Redfooted Falcon research project by looking for colour marked birds.

Read the latest MKP Newsletter (Issue #9) or download the Counting Form (Word Format, Adobe Acrobat Format)

Redfooted Falcons killing massacre - 2007-10-08

Redfooted Falcons shot in Malta The following information has been posted by Birdlife:

Conservationists appalled at Red-footed Falcon massacre

52 Red-footed Falcon –listed as Near-Threatened by BirdLife- have been found shot at Phasouri in Cyprus, a well-known poaching 'black spot'. The finding has appalled conservationists throughout Europe, and has led to BirdLife Cyprus renewing calls for action on the issue.

On the morning of Friday 5 October, farm workers at the Phasouri citrus plantations found the Red-footed Falcons laying dead or wounded among the orange trees. Two piles of empty shotgun cartridges lay at the centre of the massacre site. Of the 52 falcons recovered, six were wounded and forty-six had died.

Red-footed Falcon is a colonial species that nests and migrates in groups. The species is strictly protected in the EU as it has suffered severe declines in its main, eastern European breeding range in recent decades.

Full story at Birdlife Web Site.

Look out for colour ringed Redfooted Falcons - 2007-08-08

The following information has been posted on the Internet by Peter Fehervari, of Birdlife Hungary:

I'd hereby like to raise your attention to the fact that 1000 Redfooted Falcons have been colour ringed with individual combinations this year in Hungary in the scope of a LIFE Nature project. Our main aim is to estimate post-migration mortality,emmigration but we hope to get some additional information concerning the migration routes of the species.

So whenever you spot a redfoot in field, please remember to check the legs! We've used 8 colours: black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, mauve(purple and of course a metal ring. Please contact Peter Fehervari in case you've spoted a marked bird or if you have any questions concerning Redfooted Falcons.

Take a look at the LIFE Projects web site to see more information on the LIFE programme and specifically the Conservation of Falco vespertinus in the Pannonian Region project.

Moluccan Kestrel added to picture gallery - 2007-06-03

The Moluccan Kestrel (Falco moluccensis), also known as the Spotted Kestrel, has finally been added to kestreling.com Picture Gallery. Thank you to Baskoro Manjer Kawuryan who has a series of pictures taken around Semarang City, Central Java province, Indonesia where he lives. Some of the pictures were taken using the digitiscoping technique and clearly shows the distinctive markings of the Moluccan Kestrel. Baskoro has also taken some spectacular shots of them catching bats!

Take a look at the Picture Gallery to see more pictures.

Kestrel WebCams on the Internet - 2007-05-07

Valkenhok.nl eggs Its that time of the year again when kestrel watchers can go 'kestreling' in the internet. The kestrels in the Northern Hemisphere are starting to lay again, and the pair at the Valkenhok.nl site in Dongen, The Netherlands (Netherlands Common Kestrel web CAM) are already on their second egg. Also look at the Enel kestrel cam site (Enel Kestrel CAM in Italy's new web site), as well as the Israeli and Belgium sites listed in the Links section.

Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) Raptor Meeting - 2007-05-07

Convention on Migratory Sepcies logo A meeting to identify and elaborate an option for international cooperation on African-Eurasian Migratory Raptors under the CMS will be held by Loch Lomond, Scotland, UK, from 22-25 October 2007. All organisations concerned with the conservation, protection and management of migratory raptors particluarly within the African-Eurasian region are welcome to attend the meeting as observers. The working language of the meeting will be English, but simultaneous courtesy interpreation to Arabic, Russian, and French will be available. Registration must be completed by 21 May.

Key meeting documents will be available on the CMS website at www.cms.int/raptors

World Migratory Bird Day - 2007-05-03

WMBD logo Last year the Migrating Kestrel Project in South Africa participated in the World Migratory Bird Day. It is that time of year again and for those that haven't heard about this celebration, you can read more on it at www.worldmigratorybirdday.org. Many migratory birds are endangered and require special conservation effort because any management plan requires the input and co-operation of more than one country. The World Migratory Bird Day project was started to highlight the wonders of migratory birds and the difficult task they face on a yearly basis. They are also birds that have no political boundaries so can act as a catalyst to bringing people together from all over the world. This year the theme is "Migratory birds in a changing climate".

World Migratory Bird Day is planned for the weekend of 12-13 May 2007. This is unfortunately a little late for the Migrating Kestrel Project to participate this year with an outdoor event, so instead, the project will be publishing on this web site information gathered by this project and the effect of climate change. The theme this year is particularly relevant for the Migrating Kestrel Project, because the data collected by the project show changes in the migration pattern of these birds in South Africa, relating to aspects such as arrival dates and range extention.

Migrating Kestrel Project Update - 2007-04-28

Virtually all of the results for the 2006/7 season are now in and the kestrels have left South Africa for their breeding grounds. The results for the count on 20 January 2007 received are:
Lesser Kestrels: 88,876 (40 roosts)
Amur Falcons: 56,756 (29 roosts)
Redfooted Falcons: 601 (2 roosts)
Total falcons counted: 146,233

Once again the volunteers of the project have produced excellent results, including the highest total every counted for the project, mainly due to better counting of the Amur and Redfooted Falcons. Birders across the country have also contributed by recording their sightings of these falcons on the Natural World online GIS. Of the all the species recorded in their database, the most sightings recorded for any species is that of the Amur Falcon. Well done to all involved.

Download the latest count totals for the 2006/7 season in the MKP_counts_2006.xls spreadsheet.

Massive Kestrel roost reported in West Africa - 2007-04-26

A large Lesser Kestrel roost of 28,600 birds has been reported in Senegal, West Africa. The full story can be found at http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2007/04/raptor_super_roost.html. The text of the article is reproduced here below, just in case the link disappears in the future. It is very gratifying to see the researchers from LPO highlight the importance of looking after these birds in Africa as well. This is big roost and we know that similar sized roosts have been reported in the past in southern Africa as well.

Surveys reveal raptor ‘super-roost’
26-04-2007
Surveys in Senegal by LPO (BirdLife in France) have revealed a single roost containing over 28,600 Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni and 16,000 African Swallow-tailed Kite Chelictinia riocourii – one of the largest bird of prey roosts ever found.
“One evening, I saw the passage of some 300 birds flying over,” said Philippe Pilard of LPO, who discovered the site in January 2007. “The next evening I saw 1,300 falcons fly over. I therefore decided to follow them, which was only possible on foot.”
“I first walked 10 kilometres -even crossing rivers by canoe- and finally found the Lesser Kestrel roost, along with the African Swallow-tailed Kites.”
The existence of communal roosts during the non-breeding season -sometimes involving several thousand individuals- has been observed in a number of different countries including Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. However conservationists have described this enormous roost -altogether some 45,000 insectivorous raptors- as exceptional.
The numbers of roosting Lesser Kestrel at this site are thought to represent more than half of the known breeding populations of western Europe and northern Africa combined. The roost likely held individuals from Morocco, Spain, Portugal and France.
The finding is the culmination of seven years of research and many hours of observation in the field by LPO ornithologists, funded for the past year by La Fondation Nature et Découvertes.
During the course of the next few years, comprehensive surveys of the region are now being planned.
"Although there have been a number of conservation efforts devoted to Lesser Kestrel in France...these efforts will be fruitless if nothing is put in place to protect its African wintering grounds.” —Yvan Tariel, Head of Raptor Conservation at LPO
Lesser Kestrel is listed as Vulnerable by BirdLife. The species has undergone rapid declines in western Europe - equivalent to c.46% in each decade since 1950. As such, the species has been the subject of significant conservation efforts, particularly in its European breeding range.
LPO have used the discovery to highlight the importance of protecting wintering sites, as well as breeding sites, across the range of this migratory species.
“Although there have been a number of conservation efforts devoted to Lesser Kestrel in France and elsewhere in Europe, these efforts will be fruitless if nothing is put in place to protect its African wintering grounds.” said Yvan Tariel, Head of Raptor Conservation at LPO.

Kestrels in Madagascar - 2007-04-01

I had the opportunity to visit Madagascar and took some time off work to look at Madagascar's endemic kestrels. Lily Arison Rene de Roland, Director of the Peregrine Fund in Madagascar, took me around Antananarivo to see my first Madagascar Kestrel (Falco newtoni) and I was very pleased to see that these kestrels are quite common in Antananarivo. I was also very interested to see the two different phases, and even saw a pair at the University where the male was the rufous phase and the female the white phase. I recorded all the sightings of Madagascar Kestrel with the phase when I could see it, and will publish this information on kestreling.com soon. The literarture suggests that the rufous phase is more common on the highlands.

Lily also organized an excellent trip for me to visit Anakarafantsika National Park where I was lucky enough to see Banded Kestrel (Falco zoniventris) on my last day there. It was not the ideal time of year to be looking for these birds because it was out of the breeding season. Thus, they are less vocal and not restricted to an area around the nest site. Ankarafantsika is a dry deciduous forest on the north west coast and the bird guide there said that I knew of three individuals in the park. He had recorded breeding once in the last few years there. Looking for these kestrels in forest habitat was not easy, and in the end we managed to see a bird perched high in a dead tree in the forest next to the road. We watched it for about 5 minutes before it flew away. After seeing this bird, I now have serious doubts if it fits in with the other grey kestrels in Africa, as the current thinking on kestrel phylogeny suggests. I will post me thoughts about this shortly as well, but Banded Kestrel looks much more like one of the more primitive Fox or White-eye Kestrels to me!

I have posted my pictures that I took of Madagascar and Banded Kestrels in the gallery section, and have also added some pictures of Banded Kestrel that I got from Lily while I was in Antananarivo.

Update of kestrels counted - 2007-02-28

Most of the results have been collected for the 2006/7 season. The results for the count on 20 January 2007 received by today are:
Lesser Kestrels: 78,561 (37 roosts)
Amur Falcons: 53,936 (28 roosts)
Redfooted Falcons: 601 (2 roosts)
Total falcons counted: 133,098

Download the latest count totals for the 2006/7 season in the MKP_counts_2006.xls spreadsheet.

Over 100,000 kestrels counted - 2007-02-06

Over 100,000 kestrels have been counted so far this season and the data from several roosts are still be be collected. Currently Adam Welz is out on the road, counting some roosts where volunteers were unable to count. This initiative should ensure that most of the large roosts are counting this season. The results received by today are:
Lesser Kestrels: 64,398 (32 roosts)
Amur Falcons: 43,000 (21 roosts)
Redfooted Falcons: 601 (2 roosts)
Total falcons counted: 107,999

Of interest is that the Lesser Kestrel numbers are down compared to 2005/6 but the Amur Falcon numbers are much higher than last season. So far, the largest Lesser Kestrel roost is in Bloemfontein with 6,950 kestrels and the largest Amur Falcon roost is in Newcastle with 10,142 falcons.

Download the latest count totals for the 2006/7 season in the MKP_counts_2006.xls spreadsheet.

Lastest counts for National Kestrel Count Day - 2007-01-26

The results received by today are:
Lesser Kestrels: 30,644 (13 roosts)
Amur Falcons: 25,738 (9 roosts)
Redfooted Falcons: 600 (0 roosts)
Total falcons counted: 56,982

If you compare these with the same counts as last year for the roosts that we have counts for in both years, the Lesser Kestrels numbers are down by 7% and the Amur Falcons are down by 6%. Download the latest count totals for the 2006/7 season in the MKP_counts_2006.xls spreadsheet.

First counts come in from National Kestrel Count Day - 2007-01-23

The first counts have come in for the count held on 20 January 2007, National Kestrel Count Day. As it stand at the moment, the following have been counted:
Lesser Kestrels: 18,405 (8 roosts)
Amur Falcons: 21,643 (6 roosts)
Redfooted Falcons: 600 (0 roosts)

Download the latest count totals for the 2006/7 season in the MKP_counts_2006.xls spreadsheet.

Newcastle sets the space in second Amur Falcon count in the season - 2007-01-19

The first Amur Falcon count was done by the Naboomspruit Bird Club on 11 January 2007 where they counted an excellent 7,000 falcons. On 19 January 2007, the Newcastle Birdlife Northern Natal team did their count, and counted a record total of 10,142 falcons! While there have been higher counts at various roosts around the country in previous years, this total definitely falls in the category of one of the highest totals counted in South Africa.

Well done to Angus Burns & the Birdlife Northern Natal volunteers - Christo Maakal, Suset Maakal, Harry Greaves, Rina Pretorius, Sylva Francis, Hannetjie Venter.

Good luck to the rest of the MKP volunteers in their efforts to count all the migrating kestrels in the next week.

Volunteers need to count at specific roosts - 2007-01-18

We are looking for volunteers to count kestrels at the following towns:

Boshoff
Bothaville
Cradock
Dealesville
Koppies
Reddersburg
Allanridge
Ritchie
Marquard
Memel
Warden
Maseru, Lesotho

If any one can assist to count at the roosts in these towns, it will be of great value to the Migrating Kestrel Project.

National Kestrel Count day approaching - 2007-01-16

The day when all birders and raptorphiles in southern Africa should be looking forward to is approaching. The 20th of January 2007 is the designated National Kestrel Count day for the 2006/7 season. On this day, we hope to count as many Lesser Kestrels, Amur Falcons and Redfooted Falcons at their roosts in southern Africa. We are also hoping to have a greater participation from those living in Nambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zamibia and Angola. If you haven't got a counting form, you can download it off this web site.

Those who requested pellet collecting kits will also be collecting pellets and feathers.

Good luck to all those counting, we are all looking forward to seeing how our numbers compare with last year. Remember to try your best to estimate the numbers of the different species in mixed roosts.

Look out for ringed Redfooted Falcons - 2007-01-16

Peter Palatitz, Coordinator of the Red-footed Falcon Working Group in Hungary has been ringing Redfooted Falcons in their breeding grounds. Valuable information can be gained by anyone seeing these birds so please look at all Redfooted Falcons in detail.

Below is his appeal:
As our Red-footed Falcon project is running since the 1st January 2006 in Hungary and Romania, I would like to inform you that we ringed 180 fledgelings and 25 adult birds with colour rings.
Used colors are red, green, blue, yellow, orange, white, black and the standard aluminium ring with individual serial number.
Birds are marked with 2 rings each leg, so altogether 4 rings (1 aluminium and 3 color rings) are used.
So individual combinations includes 3 colour rings and 1 standard aluminium ring, where position (right/left leg and up/down) of the rings are very important to identify birds.

Please circulate this information in the monitoring network, perhaps somebody will find some of the birds.

Peter Palatitz
MME BirdLife Hungary
Coordinator, Red-footed Falcon Working Group
E-mail: palatitz.peter@mme.hu; Fax: +36/2756267

First Amur Falcon count shows big increase in numbers - 2007-01-11

The following report came from Herman van Dijk:
On Thursday 11.01.2007 I took a small group of Naboomspruit Bird Club members to the homestead at Nico Venter's farm on Platdoorn 333KR. We had 6 persons observing in different directions also watching the main roosting trees. Clear day, sunset at just after 1900. By 1915 there were some 100 Amur Falcons circling above the homestead, a few minutes later the main stream of birds started arriving from different directions, mainly from south/south-west and counting continued until about 1930 when it became too dark and most of the falcons had settled (with the attending sound). Comparing our observations we concluded that the number of Amur Falcons that came to roost must have been in the order of 7000 (seven thousand) birds. With our little experience with this type of observation we find accurate counting virtually impossible; the bulk of the birds arrive when natural light is fading fast; before finally settling the falcons are circling above the homestead. (The area where the farm is situated typically consists of cultivated and cattle grazing land with large trees being confined to individual homesteads). Counting is done visually without aids (binocs or scopes are useless for this type of observation). By the time the birds are settled there is no light left for observing the roosting trees. At this stage too the birds apparently are easily disturbed so I doubt whether artificially lighting up the trees concerned will be practical. Are there any suggestions?
As I previously advised the first amur falcons near the farm were noticed on 21.11.2006, roosting at the homestead has been occurring since 08.12.2006.

Should anyone wish to visit the roost can they please contact me first so I can make arrangements with the farmer (Nico Venter).

Herman van Dijk
Tel/fax 014-743 2491
Cell 083 6583020

First Amur Falcons arrive - 2006-11-21

The first flocks of Amur Falcons have been reported on 21 November 2006 in Naboomspruit and Harrismith in South Africa. Amur Falcons typically arrive later than the Lesser Kestrels, most probably because they come from Mongolia and China and thus have further to fly. Subsequent to these reports, they have also been seen foraging around Ventersdorp, South Africa, on 25 November 2006.

The migration of the Amur Falcon is not well known, leaving their breeding grounds in Mongolia, eastern China and Russia, they have recorded to "disappear" around Assan and India, only to reappear in Tanzania in east Africa. This year, James Wolstencroft recorded them on 23 November near Arusha, Tanzania. You can read more about this exciting obeservation on James' Blog, birds.intanzania.com.

Colesberg Lesser Kestrels roost saved - 2006-11-10

Colesberg in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, has a large Lesser Kestrel roost in the town and the birds have been returning to this site for many years. The kestrels roost in several large exotic bluegums trees, and some of these trees are in residential properties. Unfortunately, the residents of these properties have to endure the rain of kestrel dropping and pellets each night, and anything left below the roost will be soiled the following morning. Thus, it is a mistake to park a car under one of these trees, unless you wash your car each morning.

In Colesberg, a resident of one of these properties decided to fell a roost tree on the property where he was renting. Luckily, the Migrating Kestrel Project volunteers in Colesberg heard about this, and the authorities were notified. The Department of Nature Conservation were called in to investigate and a ruling was made that the tree could not be felled as it was the roost of an endangered species.

This particular instance highlights serveral important points:
1. This is an issue that we will have to face at many of the roosts because roosts are often in large trees on residential properties, and the birds to make quite a mess.
2. We do not know why the birds choose the trees they roost in, and therefore it is very difficult for us to make informed managment decisions about whether one can chop down roosts trees or not, and where the kestrels will go
3. We do not know what the implication is on the removal of roost trees on the population of the birds

It is good to know that there are conservation laws in place that can help spare roost trees which would at least to give us some time to look at the options and implications. However, if these roost trees are in towns where we have no Migrating Kestrel Project volunteers, roosts could be felled without us even knowing.

First Lesser Kestrels arrive in South Africa - 2006-10-27

The first groups of Lesser Kestrels have arrived in South Africa. These have been recorded in the Free State at Koffiefontien on 27 October 2006 by Suna and Edwin Engelbrecht and in Mpumalanga Province at Middelburg on 28 October 2006 by Zephne Bernitz. Lesser Kestrels have also been recorded at Villiers in the Free State on 29 October 2006 by Jos Ferreira.
There have been reports of Amur Falcons and Lesser Kestrels in the previous months from Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Western Cape Province, but these are the first reports from the roosts and can probably be considered the "official" arrival dates of the roosting population.

If you do see migrating kestrels, please remember to add them to our official sightings datatabase at NaturalWorld (www.natworld.org) which is also accessible from this site (see the menu bar). If you would like me to add the record for you, please email me with the details of where you saw the birds, the date, time and how many you saw. Any other information can also be added to the Comments section.

New Fox Kestrel pictures added to the gallery - 2006-10-10

Perched Fox Kestrel by Guy Rondeau Guy Rondeau sent me his pictures of Fox Kestrels from north-west Guinea. Fox Kestrels are little known and they remain a special on twitchers lists when travelling to Africa south of the Sahel. Many birders haven't seen these kestrels and that is why pictures like those of Guy's are so useful.

Guy has spent a lot of time in north-west Africa and says that Fox Kestrel distribution is very patchy, and often are not present in very suitable habitat. Fox Kestrels are most often found near rocky hills. Guy has seen them hunting in grassy plains and light wooded savannas, often far away from rocky outcrops. They most often catch prey on the ground and Guy has an excellent picture in the Gallery of a Fox kestrel taking off from the ground on a typical grassy plain.

Several birds have been seen together and were assumed to be a family group. It has been recorded that they breed in loose colonies but Guy has not seen this in West Africa.

Do you need help entering your sightings on the NaturalWorld web map? - 2006-08-21

For those of you who haven't used the NaturalWorld web based GIS system before, I have outlined everything that you need to know with screen shots. Also note that if you get stuck while using the system, there is comprehensive help online.

Take a look the detailed step by step procedure written by Anthony van Zyl. .

Lesser Kestrel news from Sicily - 2006-08-04

The following news has come in from the Lesser Kestrel project in Sicily run by Maurizio Sarà.

The 2006 Lesser Kestrel season was very promising. We ringed some 250 birds, increasing the adult sample because we started a couple of weeks earlier and we were able to get the adults in the nests. All those handled birds reproduced successfully and we did not have any nest abandonment. We had also the first recaptures from the two past years (ten), it was really exciting to spot one bird and to know where and when it was born. Unfortunately most of the rings were impossible to read. We have now more than 600 birds ringed in the last three years (2004-2006) and we want improve the effort of reading rings in the field next season. Last but not the least, we went for the first check to the pre-migratory area and we counted already some 350 birds. It was astonishing to go after one year and they were still hunting there, exactly in the same place at the same time !!

Map your kestrel sightings - 2006-07-25

The Migrating Kestrel Project (MKP) of the Birds of Prey Working Group, Endangered Wildlife Trust is proud to announce an exciting new initiative with NaturalWorld (www.natworld.org) to map sightings of the Lesser Kestrel, Amur Falcon and Redfooted Falcon in southern Africa. As you probably know, the Lesser Kestrel is listed in the Red Data book and recent information also shows that Amur and Redfooted Falcons populations are not as large as previously thought. The MKP collects information on these species in their wintering grounds to assess and address conservation issues.

The aim of recording sightings of these small falcon species is two fold.

Firstly, the ability to see sightings on a map interface will allow the project to find new kestrel roosts. Volunteers of the MKP counted over 90,000 Lesser Kestrels during the 2005/6 summer at 44 different roosts. However, we believe that there are more roosts and plotting sightings on a map will help us find these roosts. Furthermore, we know that these migrating falcons also use small roosts in rural areas. We are hoping to use this sightings database to help estimate the proportion of the population that are not roosting at the known urban roosts.

Secondly, a map interface is ideal to record the influx and departure of migrating birds in southern Africa. Hopefully this exercise will also help determine if some falcons do overwinter in southern Africa or not. [For those that see early birds, please add notes on the bird in the Comments field.]

This initiative needs the participation of all birders and raptorphiles across southern Africa. Thus, I would like to invite and encourage you to all participate by keeping a keen watch for migrating kestrels and entering your sightings at www.natworld.org.

NaturalWorld was chosen as the ideal partner to collect this information because their web-based mapping interface is easy to use yet provides rich functionality. Once you have registered for free, you can login, select the Interactive Species Database and then click on the map to add your sightings. The NaturalWorld website is accessible to all of us because it works over a modem connected to a telephone, which is how most of us access the internet from home.

If you have any queries, please contact me at anthony@kestreling.com. I am looking forward to seeing the first sightings of migrating kestrels on the map at the NaturalWorld web site for this coming season. I'll keep you informed on the progress of the database.

To add your sightings, go to the NaturalWorld web site..

Have you joined the Global Raptor Information Network - 2006-07-14

The Peregrine Fund has set up a Global Raptor Information Network (GRIN) and the website is well worth visiting. GRIN is designed to provide information on diurnal raptors (hawks, eagles, and falcons) and to facilitate communication between raptor researchers and organizations interested in the conservation of these species. It also provides a useful resource to raptor researchers by having a the best species accounts I have seen on the web, as well as a very comprehensive bibliography with some papers available for download.

To join, go to the Global Raptor Information Network.

Ringed Amur Falcon seen in India - 2006-06-10

Ray Wilson photographed this ringed Amur Falcon in Goa, in India on a trip from 3-18 December 2004. I have only recently been made aware of his photograph published on the internet, where it shows a female Amur Falcon with a green ring on its right leg (click on image for larger view). This is valuable information because hopefully it can shed some light on where this bird has come from.

The Amur Falcon is one of the raptors that flies the longest distance between summer breeding grounds in Mongolia and China and wintering grounds in southern Africa. Furthermore, it is also interesting because it has been suggested in the literature that it travels a significant distance over the sea. This type of journey is rare in raptors, who typically do not like flying long distances over water. Supposedly the Amur Falcon does not follow the traditional migration routes into Africa via the Middle East, but rather leaves India to cross several thousands of kilometers of sea to join the African coast at Kenya. However, as far as I am aware, there is no evidence to support this journey and sighints or ringing returns of this bird remain sparse. There are no ringing returns in the the Southern African Ringing Unit (SAFRING) database for the Amur Falcon. We will have to wait for miniature sattelite tracking devices to ultimately solve this mystery.

Another interesting aspect of this sighting is that it was in December, which is quite late for the bird to still be in India. Amur Falcons typically reach Southern Africa in December (see Amur Falcon arrival dates from Zephne Bernitz in Middelburg, South Africa). One has to wonder if this was a just a late bird, or maybe got sick and may have even stayed over in India. Ray Wilson reports that it was regarded as an unsual sighting for Goa by the local birding community.

So, if you can shed any light on who ringed this bird or where it was ringed, please email me (see Contact) with details.

Details of Ray Wilson's trip can be found at Ray Wilson's Bird Photography web site.

Belgium web cam kestrels hatch - 2006-05-23

The "De Torenvalk" study group report that their kestrels that are viewable on their web cam have hatched their first egg. Take a look to see the small chicks at http://www.detorenvalk.be.

Results of the online kestrel counting training- 2006-05-22

In the middle of April 2006 I posted a page on trying to help people estimate kestrel numbers. At the same time, I asked if you could send me your results, to look how the accuracy of people differ. I have now analysed these results and although the number of responses is still small, it makes for some very interesting reading. I am happy to report that on average, the accuracy is much higher than what I had expected. Read more on the Results of the online kestrel counting training...

Israel Kestrel Web Cam brings new technological advances - 2006-05-20

Common Kestrel web cam in Israel Motti Charter has been working on Common Kestrel in Israel for many years, and has some very interesting projects on the go such as an urban study of breeding kestrels and a study of the interaction between kestrels and barn owls in a nest box study.

As part of the project on urban kestrels, his research group has had a web cam running for the last few years. Visit his web site to read more on this project and other research work, as well as look at the archived pictures and video of the breeding kestrels.

In the last two years, Motti's web team has brought more than just the normal 10 second image scan as in the other bird web cams. The setup allows for streaming video with sound, which means that you can watch and hear in real time, what is going on at the nest ledge. While this does require slightly higher bandwidth, as well as an up to date Media Player, it is very worthwhile visiting the web cam to see the activities on the nest ledge. Having sound with the picture is something that none of the other web cams provide.

Take a look at the web site at http://www.birds.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=1360.

Trip Report of kestrel roosts in South Africa - 2006-05-16

Adam Welz visited as many kestrel roost towns as possible when driving up and down between Cape Town and Johannesburg in December 2005. This was a time when most of the kestrels had arrived at their roosts, and therefore most roosts could be expected to be occupied. A list of roost towns, both current and historic, was compiled by Hein Pienaar in the late 1990's and one of Adam's aims was to find new roost towns. He achieved this aim by adding Bothaville and Philipstown to the list. His report makes very interesting reading because when talking to people in these small towns, many historic stories are told of the birds, how long they have been roosting there, and the interaction between the birds and the people.

The trip provided such interesting and important information that, should we get the money, we would like to make this an annual event. It also serves well as the opportunity to visit the Migrating Kestrel Project volunteers in the field, and recruit more people to monitor the kestrels for the project.

Read more detail...

Web site changes - 2005-11-01

Kestreling.com have moved to a new more powerful machine. I have moved the web site over, but if something isn't working, please let me know so I can investigate. It could have easily happened that something was not transferred properly.

First Lesser Kestrels arrive at roosts - 2005-10-21

The first Lesser Kestrels have arrived at roosts monitored by the Migrating Kestrel Project. Lesser Kestrels have been seen in Villiers and Colesberg. Take a look at the map of Lesser Kestrel arrival dates in South Africa for the 2005/6 season on the Migrating Kestrel Project section on this web site.

Migrating Kestrel Project - 2005-10-15

I have recently taken over the Migrating Kestrel Project from Hein Pienaar. Hein founded the project 11 years ago, but has found that because of work commitments, he no longer has the time to co-ordinate such a big project. He will continue to monitor the Vereenigining and Heidelberg roost sites, but will no longer be interacting as much with the other volunteers. Hein has done an excellent job and has been an integral player in the international Lesser Kestrel community. Without his co-ordinated counts from South Africa, the northern hemisphere researchers would know nothing about the numbers of these birds in their wintering grounds.

For more details on this project, including information on how you can participate, please visit the Migrating Kestrel Project section on this web site.

Cape Peninsula kestrel project - 2005-10-01

The season is starting again for us in the southern hemisphere. I have started checking my first nests and most of the kestrels are down with eggs. As you can imagine, this is always a busy time so updates may be a little slower on the web page. Please accept my apologies.

Sightings of kestrels around Cape Town - 2005-09-11

I have been recording all my kestrel sightings over the last year. This has identified some areas were I think there are kestrel nests. Take a look at my sightings on the Cape Peninsula to see if you have seen any of these kestrels.

Ask a Question section revoked - 2005-09-08

I have temporarily taken the Ask a Question section off the web site, because it has been plagued by inappropriate spamming messages. I will reinstate the Ask the Question section when I worked out how to prevent this spam.
In the interim, you can always email me a question on the email address in the Contact us section.

Lesser Kestrels in Sicily - 2005-09-04

Lesser Kestrel male in the hand

Maurizio Sara has been watching Lesser Kestrels in Sicily and reports that there are still several thousands of Lesser Kestrels in Sicily. He has found a pre-migratory concentration area with a roosting site in an artificial eucalyptus wood of between 1000-1300 birds.

It is interesting to postulate if these birds are only from Sicily, or if there are birds from Italy congregating in the flock as well. I am not sure how well documented pre-migration congragations are in the Lesser Kestrel. Has anyone else seen this kind of behaviour?

Photo: A male Lesser Kestrel will a colour ring and engraved number. Taken by Maurizio Sara

First Lesser Kestrel sighting for 2005/6 season - 2005-08-12

Hennie Venter saw a a single male Lesser Kestrel sitting on a fence pole on the Gouritsmond & Vleesbaai road on the Cape Town side of Mossgas. It was in open grassland on an Ostrich farm. It is interesting that this was a single bird, and so early. It does make one wonder if this bird did overwinter in South Africa. Has anyone recorded that before?
As a reminder, I hope to compile a map of sightings of Lesser Kestrels arriving in South Africa. See the section on Lesser Kestrel sightings in South Africa at the end of 2004/5 season. So please let me know of any Lesser Kestrel, Amur Falcon and Western Redfooted Falcon sightings.

Lesser Kestrels on the move - 2005-07-26

Brian van der Walt, who regularly communicates with the Lesser Kestrel research community in Israel, reports that the Lesser Kestrel that breed there have already left by the middle of June. For the birding community in South Africa, it would be interesting to note when the first ones arrive in South Africa. From previously experience, they normally only get here in November... seems very long since June!
The research team in Israel have been ringing the breeding population there but don’t know where 'their' birds go. So, look out for colour ringed birds.
This Lesser Kestrel season, I hope to compile a map of sightings of Lesser Kestrels arriving in South Africa, in a similar way to how I did it last season when they left. See the section on Lesser Kestrel sightings in South Africa at the end of 2004/5 season.

American Kestrel chicks hatch - 2005-07-11

Mary Schoonover reports that the American Kestrels in her nest box have hatched.
Below is her news:
There are three hatchlings in my nest box. So far the fouth egg has not. The first hatched on July 7 and two hatched on July 9, one around 6AM and one around noon. I was hoping to video a hatching, but the mother sat on the eggs the whole time. It wasn't until she left the nest soon after they hatched that I could see them. She pretty much slept through the whole thing. She didn't feed the first one until the day after it hatched. Then she fed it twice. When the third one hatched, within two hours she was feeding them all. The male has tried but hasn't quite figured out that the grasshopper he is trying to feed is almost as big as the babies and he has to break it into smaller pieces. He ends up eating most of it himself. At least he is trying and he did manage to get a morsel or two to two of them. Mother is doing much better after her first attempt with the first one. She was doing the same thing, trying to feed the insect whole. The male brought a small snake to her and she fed that to them. I have a feeling the fourth egg will not hatch. It sure is fun to be able to watch them with the nest cam in the box.
Take a look in the American Kestrel section in the Picture Gallery for a video of one of the hatched chicks.

American Kestrel noises on the nest - 2005-07-05

Mary Schoonover reports that the American Kestrels in her nest box have recently been making soft purring noises in the nest. The eggs ar due to hatch in the next week and one can only wonder if this is in response to sounds that they may be hearing from chicks in the eggs.
Has anyone recorded these kind of noises before?...

Ask a Question section added - 2005-06-15

I have added a Bulletin Board section to kestreling.com to provide an area where people can ask kestrel questions. I have periodically received questions from people which could be of benefit to all who visit this web site. Please feel free to post a question, comment or any other kestrel related information.
See more at Ask a Question...

Exclusive footage of American Kestrels - 2005-06-09

American Kestrel web cam Mary Schoonover has a pair of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) nesting in a nest box in her garden in northeastern Vermont, USA. She has installed a web cam to observe the pair enabling her to take pictures and video footage of the activities of these birds. Kestreling.com is hosting some of her pictures and video footage. These can be viewed in the American Kestrel section in the Picture Gallery.

The first egg was laid on Saturday 4 June 2005 and the 4th egg on 10 June 2005 (two days apart). At this site, the first female of the pair was divorced or disappeared and the male then paired with a second female. The first egg was laid two weeks to the day from disappearance of the first female. The pair have started incubating, with both male and female taking their turns.

A comparison of Kestrels around the world - 2005-06-07

Museum collections often have skin collections of kestrels. I recently had the opportunity to spend some time viewing the kestrel skins at the Natural History Museum in Tring, United Kingdom. My main aim was to look at the distribution and differences in the skins of the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) but I also took some time looking at some of the other species, especially those for which there isn't a lot of information or photographs available. In the picture, you can see the difference in the largest kestrel (Fox Kestrel - Falco alopex, male) and the smallest (Seychelles Kestrel - Falco araea, male). Click on the image to view a larger version.

You can read more about these comparisons and differences in the subspecies of the Common Kestrel in the Kestrel comparison part in the Projects section.

Watching kestrels hatch - 2005-05-12

Series of web cams
The Common Kestrels chicks in most of the web cams are hatching, I hope that you have all been keeping an eye on the great images from Italy! I had the pleasure of watching some of the events at Claudia and ICS's nest (CAM 2 on the Enel web cam site), exciting stuff. On the day the chicks hatched Claudia's normal relaxed way of incubating was replaced with regular moving about. She was obviously aware of all the action under her. At around 8h45, she turned to face inwards and the next time she turned, an egg shell was lying next to her. A little later, she left the nest to reveal the first chick (first photo above). Eggs are either eaten by the female kestrel, or a carried out of the next and discarded. In this case, Claudia ate the egg shell (second photo above). Brooding five chicks can't be easy and Claudia now has a much harder time relaxing on the nest. Little heads are forever popping out in front of her (third photo above). Feeding time is also a frenzy of little heads also reaching for food from mom (fourth photo above). We can expect to see feeding on a more frequent basis now that there are chicks.

Look out for Ringed Lesser Kestrels in Africa - 2005-05-10

There has been an appeal from Israel for sightings of ringed Lesser Kestrels in South Africa. While a few Lesser Kestrels are ringed while in their wintering grounds, there are several studies on breeding Lesser Kestrels in Europe. The research group in Israel use two rings - one aluminum ring (usually on right leg) and the other is a colour ring with two numbers and one letter (eg 67E) that can be read with binoculars or a telescope. The colours are white, yellow, green, black and red. They ring them as chicks at their 150 breeding boxes in Northern Israel and don't know where they go for the southern summer.

So next time your have the pleasure of watching Lesser Kestrels perching on our telephone poles, make an extra effort to note if they are ringed or not. If you come across a ringed Lesser Kestrel, please email Brian van der Walt, or you can pass the information on to me, and I will make sure that he gets it.

For those of you who want to look at a picture of a ringed Lesser Kestrel, take a look at the pictures on this French Lesser Kestrel web site.

Volunteer group - Verreaux's Eagle Project - 2005-05-08

Cloudy view of mountain The WCCRP volunteer group tackled its first project on 8 May 2005. The pair of Verreaux's Eagles (Aquila verreauxi) on Table Mountain normally breed around the Cableway, but this year there is little activity there. Several sightings of Verreaux's Eagles have been reported on the eastern side. The volunteers were called in to help Lucia Rodrigues find where they were spending their time. Three groups of volunteers were positioned along the eastern faces of Table Mountain, from Nursery Ravine north to Devils Peak, to look out for raptors and especially monitor any Verreaux's Eagle activity. The groups spent three hours of watching the cliffs.

However, success was thwarted by bad weather. The only raptors seen were African Goshawk at the Kirstenbosch gate, two Peregrines and a possible Honey Buzzard. We could also hear Whitenecked Ravens in the mist, but nothing more. Thanks to Ken, Ann, Bruce and Clive for putting up with the weather and for helping us with the Verreaux's Eagle Project.

The Table Mountain Verreaux's Eagles are still at large and we still don't know where their nest is this year! So, please keep your eye open and report any sightings to Lucia Rodgriques (contact details on the Zandvlei Trust – Western Cape Raptor Research Programme web site).

Two more marked Rock Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus rupicolus) spotted - 2005-05-01

Ringed kestrel Ann Koeslag has spotted another colour marked kestrel, but this one is going to be a little more difficult to identify. While it is clearly ringed with a green ring on the left leg (see photo on the left), the right leg does not have a metal ring with a number. Andrew Jenkins suspects that this may be a rehabilitated bird that has been released, but we won't really know until someone responds to this sighting, or we get come clues if we can get the bird in the hand.

The photo on the right was taken on 3 May 2005 in Diep River. This bird was perched in a pine tree in someones garden, and also shows a red ring on the left leg and a metal numbered ring on the left leg. This bird is most probably the male Rock Kestrel ringed on 3 April 2005 in Diep River. This sighting is within 1 km of where the bird was trapped.

Kestrel sleep

Sleeping kestrel For the first time, I have been able to see kestrels sleeping thanks to the use of infrared light on the cameras used in the web cams. I have ben watching the kestrel cam (CAM 3) in Italy, on the Enel web site. Of interest was to see the sleep pattern of the incubating bird. In one of the evening when I watched her, she only slept with her head tucked in her wing for two hours in the middle of the night (around 2am). Birds are able to sleep with their eyes open ("pseudo-sleep"), so for much of the night when the kestrel appears to be awake, she is probably asleep but in a state of wariness.

The photo on the left was taken around 1h30 and shows the bird with eyes wide open (appear white in the infrared light) while the photo on the right was taken at just before 3h00 when she had tucked her head into her wing. Sometime the kestrel would also rest her head with her beak touching the ground, and other times she would also close her eye. Web cams seem to provide a good opportunity to study sleep patterns in birds and I wonder if any one has taken advantage of this?

Ranger Steve's American Kestrel CAM up and running - 2004-04-27

The American Kestrel CAM run by Ranger Steve is up and running again. There is a chance that Lilly will lay a second clutch, depending if she gets a mate in time or not. Steve has removed the unhatched clutch and cleaned out the nest box, so it is all ready.

Keep you eye on the American Kestrel web page.

Israel web cam goes online - 2005-04-26

For the third straight year, Motti Charter and his kestrel research group have placed a webcam in a Common Kestrel nest in Israel. The kestrel nest is in a flower pot on the 10th floor of a building in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv. The camera also has audio so turn you speakers on if you want to hear the sound.

Take a look at http://www.birds.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=1360.

With web cams running in Israel, Italy and The Netherlands, one is now in a global seat to observe kestrel breeding around the world. It provides an excellent opportunity to see the challenges that different kestrel pairs have in varying environments.

WCRRP volunteer group meet in the field - 2005-04-24

Second Volunteers in the field Lucia Rodrigues organized our second outing for the new raptor volunteers to meet at Silvermine. The weather gods smile on us this time as the skies cleared as the group converged in the parking lot. We all walked down on the road under the Steenberg cliff line, one of the top five raptor spots on the Peninsula.

At our first stop, we had a short introduction to the Volunteer Network programme and a Question and Answer feedback session. We hung around for a while, but the cliffs seem reasonably quiet except for several Black and Alpine Swifts flying around. After hearing Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk in the trees below us, we did pick up a pair flying up above the road and then along the base of the cliff to the east. One perched in a dead tree for while, providing rather far away views through the telescopes. We then moved on to the second small cliff, where raptor activity picked up. We spotted a single Verreauxi's Eagle fly past in a leasurly eagle sort of way, and then had excellent views of a white breasted and melanistic pair of Black Sparrowhawks. Pair of Peregrines in a tree A pair of Peregrines then flew in from the north east and spent much of the morning perched in the dead pines along the cliff line. We could clearly see their colour rings. The Black Eagle returned about an hour later, and had to run the gauntlet along the cliff line, being chased by Rock Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon.

On our way out, we had excellent views of several Whitenecked Ravens, one of which was eating a dead lizard. A single unringed Rock Kestrel perched on the top of the cliff was our departing view of raptors along the cliff line.

It was an excellent raptor morning, seeing all the cliff nesting species except Jackal Buzzard, and a couple of forest raptors as well. Welcome to Ken, Ann, Andy, Irene, Clive, Peter, Dirk and Charlie to this exciting initiative.

Our next planned event will be the search for the Table Mountain Black Eagle pair, and Lucia will send out an email to all to co-ordinate the excursion.

Lilly deserts nest - 2004-04-22

After a lot of fun watching the American Kestrel CAM run by Ranger Steve, the sad news is that things obviously became too much for Lilly, and she decided to stop incubating her eggs. You can read the whole story on the web page.

Ornis italica adds two more kestrel cams to the Enel web site - 2005-04-21

Ornis italica have added two more kestrel web cams to the Enel web site. Both are already on eggs.

If you would like to take a glimpes into the private lives of three kestrel pairs, take a look at their excellent web site.

Lilly's eggs are still alive and well - 2004-04-20

Moving egg As mentioned on Ranger Steve's American Kestrel CAM, where the male (Dash) was killed by a Sharpshinned Hawk during incubation of the 5 egg clutch, the female (Lilly) now has to hunt for her own food, leaving the eggs exposed. Lilly is off the nest for up to two hour periods, during which there must be some cooling of the eggs. The question is, will the eggs still hatch. While one may be sceptical, in the time lapse photography of the clutch, one can see one or more of the eggs moving. The question is, is this just because the egg was not placed properly when the female left the nest, or is it due to a moving embryo in the eggs. The first egg is due to hatch on 26 April 2005, so time will tell.

Take a look at the animated picture I created from some of the photographs taken on 20 April 2005, where you can see the egg on the left side of the clutch moving from one side to the other. On this same day, I saw some of the other eggs moving around as well. For a clearer picture but bigger file, look at this 180kb version.

Response from Steve who runs the nestbox and web site, is that the eggs move because of wind causing the box to move. The box is mounted on a very high pole, and is subject to movement which will cause the eggs to move. The eggs didn't hatch, so maybe they weren't as "alive and well" as I had hoped.

Kestrels across the Internet

Peregrine Falcon Workgroup Web Cam - 1 egg A lot of research has been conducted on many species of kestrels but scientific studies often ignore the individual birds involved. Scientists are typically interested in facts, figures, averages, statistical significances and trends. This is a good thing, because when decisions need to be made about birds, the data to back up these decisions is rigourous.

However, each and every kestrel out there is also an individual, trying to survive in nature and raise a family each year. There are a number of web cams now available on the internet, giving us glimpse into the private lives of Common and American Kestrels. The breeding attempt at two of these sites appears to be on track (Enel Common Kestrel CAM in Italy and the Dutch Peregrine Workgroup Common Kestrel CAM in the Netherlands).

The other two pairs have been subject to the harder aspects of nature. In the Wildlink Common Kestrel CAM in the UK, the female recently died and now the male has not been able to get a new mate. Their conclusion is that he will probably not be breeding this year. There has been an even more tragic event at Ranger Steve's American Kestrel CAM, where the male (named Dash) was caught by a Sharp-shinned Hawk when coming out of the nest box. Now, the female (named Lilly) is trying to complete incubating the five eggs, which were due to hatch on 26 April 2005. She obviously has to leave the nest now to catch her own food. One really admires her courage but has to feel sceptical that she is going to manage!

If you know of more active kestrel web cams, please let me know.

Enel Web Cam News: Claudia lays fifth (and last?) egg - 2005-04-14

Enel Web Cam - 5 eggs Claudia laid her fifth egg today, as predicted by laying date calculations made on 8 April (see news on that day). I'm not sure when the eggs was laid, but this picture was the first time I saw 5 eggs when she stood up to reveal her clutch. It was after 9h00.

She has been incubating much of the time since the third egg and ICS has been bringing in food on a regular basis, and doing a bit of sitting himself, when Claudia has taken a break. So far I have seen lizards, birds and mice in to the nest, of which most prey items seems to be lizards. Maybe someone from Europe and tell me what the dark lizard is with green patterns on its back.

New Kestrel Research Yahoo Group

A new Kestrel research group has been established by well known Israeli kestrel researcher, Motti Charter. This group is designed for researchers and enthusiasts alike, interested in different aspects of kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) biology and ecology. Unlike most raptors, kestrels are opportunistic hunters and nesters, making them the most common diurnal raptor throughout most of their range. Still, kestrel populations are vulnerable to many different factors such as agricultural pesticides, human persecution, and habitat loss.

To join the group, send an email to Kestrel_research-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Once you have joined, to post a message, send an email to Kestrel_research@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe at Kestrel_research-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
The list owner, Motti Charter, can be reached at Kestrel_research-owner@yahoogroups.com

Ringed Diep River Kestrels resighted - 2005-04-14

At 8h45, I saw the two color marked kestrels sitting next to each other in a pine tree next to Prince Georges Drive, near to where we caught the female. The rings on each bird are easily visible. This is the first time that I have seen them since we ringed them. Both looked healthy and were hunting in the open grassland from the pine tree and road lights.

Resighting of ringed raptors is as good as retrapping ringed birds and can add very valuable information on longetivity and movements. On the Cape Peninsula, we have a few Rock Kestrels colour ringed and most of the Peregrine Falcons. So if you see these species around, take the time to look at them carefully to see if they are colour ringed or not. You can report sigthings on these species to me or give the details in the Guest Book.

The help birders find contacts of people running colour ringing raptor projects in Europe, a web site was created with a list of these projects. So if you are in Europe, next time you see a colour marked bird, take a look at the Colour Ringed Birds web site to see who to contact.

Enel Web Cam News: Web CAM selected as top internet site

The Enel Web Cam has been selected as one of the "BEST WEBCAMS ON THE NET"!! Take a look at Patrick Senecal's Dashboad of Best Webcams on the Net.

If you haven't visited the site, take a look for yourselves and tell your friends as well.

WCRRP volunteer group gets underway - 2005-04-10

Volunteers learning about monitoring raptors Lucia Rodrigues organized our first outing for the new raptor volunteers, a group of enthusiastic people who are going to be involved with monitoring the raptor population in the greater Cape Town area as part of the Western Cape Raptor Research Programme (WCRRP). The plan was to do some raptor watching and discuss the aims of the volunteer network, the needs of the volunteers, get tasks organized and field questions. However, the day started off badly with high speed winds and thick mist at our meeting point and good Peninsula raptor spot, Silvermine Reserve. Our cold and wet mood changed when we decided to meet at Sylvia's place for coffee and biscuits to talk about raptors instead. Thanks for a wonderful venue, Sylvia!

In our discussion, Andrew and Anthony outlined that information they require would be sightings of raptors and specifically cliff nesting raptors in and around the Cape Peninsula and Tygerberg Hills areas. This includes information on colour marked birds, so stop, put on the hazard lights and get those scopes out! During the breeding season, this would be expanded to include observations at nest sites to give an indication of breeding status. This could be done by working a specific area (for those who do a lot of walking) or adopting a specific spot or pair, for instance, watching at a quarry.

Most of the volunteers were from Tygerberg area, so we then concentrated on the specifics of the building and quarries in that area that needed checking.

Welcome to Sylvia, Ian, Brian, Ralph, Kim, Rick and Kevin to this exciting initiative. We are planning a future outing to Silvermine and then later outings to some of the quarries and cliff sights to get to know the birds and watching conditions better. The volunteer network co-ordinator, Lucia, will let us all know where and when these are to take place.

Enel Web Cam News: Claudia lays second egg - 2005-04-08

Claudia laid her second egg two days after the first one, at approximately the same time. She spent a half an hour sitting tight on the nest from around 8h30 and when ICS came to the nest with a lizard, she refused to take it from him. When he left the nest, she briefly stood up to show a second egg. She should start incubating by the third egg (Sunday, 10 April) and complete the clutch the 14th if they lay five eggs.

Enel Web Cam News: Claudia lays first egg - 2005-04-06

Italy Kestrel Web Cam site Claudia has laid her first egg! Both Claudia and ICS have been in and out of the nest box for the last week. Claudia, especially, has been spending quite a lot of time in the nest box. The nest box was empty around 8h30 and just before 9h00, an egg was visible under Claudia. Claudia sat on the egg on and off for much of the morning. Later in the morning, ICS also spent some time sitting on the egg. Around midday Claudia was out of the box, but then returned to sit in the box for the afternoon. This year, they have laid 7 days earlier than they did last year.

The photo was captured off my computer screen just after she had laid her egg. If I wasn't mistaken, she was sitting in a similar position when it was laid.

Take a look for yourselves!

Surprisingly, the egg was moved around the box quite a lot during the day, suggesting that the birds don't have a definite scrape where they are laying their clutch. Thus, it was laid in the front of the box, but later Claudia and ICS were sitting on it in the back.

Sightings of ringed kestrels

Color ringed kestrel One often sees kestrels or Peregrine Falcons perched next to the road or in cell phone towers around the Cape Peninsula. Now that we have color marked Rock Kestrels around, I really would like to urge you to take the time to stop when you see a kestrel or falcon and check if it is ringed or not. The kestrels are ringed with quite large color rings, taking up much of the tarsus, so can even be seen with binoculars. Of course, a telescope makes the task much easier.

Andrew Jenkins have so many of the Peregrine Falcons in the Cape Town area and surrounding flats color ringed, that of every three birds that we look at, two are ringed. With that kind of success rate, it is really worthwhile checking if they are ringed.

Photo by Ann Koeslag showing color rings

Watching kestrels nesting in Italy

Italy Kestrel Web Cam site Giacomo Dell'Omo from Ornis italica has several web cams set up in Italy, and last year two of these were Common Kestrel web cams. These nests are in pylons of the Italian electricity company, Enel. They have information in Italian and English on their web cam, the biology of kestrels, useful internet links and a picture and video gallery.

This year, they have their first kestrel web cam online already. This pair, named Claudia and ICS have been nesting there for the last six years and have produced 29 fledglings. Last year they produced five young. Information on their breeding success has been posted on the web site.

Giacomo's web site has a lot of information on last year's successes, and includes information on their other web cams, Peregrine Falcon and Herring Gull.

Visit their web site at www.enelbirdcam.com.

Ringed Diep River kestrel caught - 2005-04-03

Female RK in hand Andrew Jenkins, Ann Koeslag and I spent several hours in the area where Ann had seen the ringed kestrel, with our balchatri, to trap the bird. At 8h00 Ann spotted a single kestrel on a roadside light. It then flew to a light pole in an open grassy area. We put the balchtri down and 5 minutes later had the kestrel in the hand.

Colour ringed RK on building This bird was not the ringed bird that Ann had photographed, but we put colour rings (Black over Red on the right leg) on it anyway. Surprisingly, this kestrel had a fully barred tail, indicating it was a female. However, Ann's ringed bird was also sexed as a female from the photographs and if she was part of a pair, then this kestrel must have been from somewhere else. After it was released, the bird flew to the light post it was trapped off, had quick preen and then flew to a nearby building to pull on its rings a bit.

It wasn't long before it returned to the field where to continued to hunting, making several unsuccessful strikes from various poles, tree branches and fences. During the morning, we saw it only catch one small black invertebrate, possibly a cricket. We also had excellent views of an adult female Peregrine in a nearby mast while watching the kestrel.

Foot with missing talons At 9h40 we decided to look for the ringed kestrel that Ann had seen. We drove towards Princess vlei and then turned east towards the M5. We picked up a kestrel on a light pole over the M5 (1.2km from where Ann had photographed it on 19 April), and after a short wait, caught this bird as well. It turned out to be the ringed bird that Ann had seen. Looking back at out records, this bird was ringed by Andrew Jenkins on 29 October 2002 as a chick (making it 2.5 years old), in a nest in a crane in Elsies River, 15.9km to the north east of where we caught it. The other interesting thing about this bird was that it didn't have any talons on the left foot. Only a short stump of the outside toe remained, while all the other toes had lost the talons at more or less the last joint in the toe. The kestrel didn't seem to be able to use the stumpy toes, which were fully healed. We were really puzzled how this bird could have lost it's toes and would be interested to hear if anyone has a comment. It is possible that it had got it's foot entangled in some twine or other pollution which had restricted blood flow to all the toes, or alternatively, maybe it had lost it's talons while hunting. Despite the fact that this kestrel could only hunt with one foot, it seemed in good condition with a mass of 192 grams. (The first kestrel caught had a mass of 212 grams.)

Lesser Kestrel and Amur Falcon sightings by Japie Claassens - end March 2005

Japie Claassens did a 15 day birding trip to Natal via the Free State at the end of March and saw Lesser Kestrels, Amur and Western Redfooted Falcons.

Below outlines where he saw these birds:

Day 1: Prince Albert to Willem Pretorius Game Reserve
Lots of Lesser Kestrels around Hanover & Colesberg.

Day 2: Willem Pretorius to Ingogo
Along the road Amur Falcon replaces Lesser Kestrel.

Day 15 : Wakkerstroom
Along the road we had magnificient views of mostly Amur Falcon, but there was also some Western Redfooted Kestrels in between.

Latest pictures of ringed Rock Kestrel in Plumstead/Diep River - 2005-03-19

Ringed Female RK on street light

Here are some more pictures from Ann of the ringed Rock Kestrel in Plumstead, clearly showing the metal ring on the right leg. If this was a chick that I have ringed and we manage to catch it, I will post where it comes from shortly.

Ann uses a digital camera to capture these shots which makes it very easy to review the picture and pass on the information easily and quickly over the internet. She doesn't use exceptionally expensive Single Lens Reflex digital equipment with long lenses that cost more than a car, but rather a normal point-and-shoot digital camera with a good optical zoom (12X in her case) that any one of us could afford to buy over the camera store counter and own. Ann is well known for capturing what she sees on her digital camera which has been great for those doing research on specific raptors on the Peninsula. Now that many of us have digital cameras (these cameras are great for capturing kiddie shots, that is actually why I have mine!), I personally think we should start using them in our bird observations. These days, most rarety sightings are accompanied by digital photographs (see www.zestforbirds.co.za for photos of South African rarities). Also, many people are using them to take photographs through their telescopes (called digiscoping - do a search on www.google.com for more details) to record what they see. So next time you see an interesting kestrel sighting in your neighbourhood, what not snap a photo and send it on to me? I'm sure each and every photograph has some bit of kestrel biology to tell.

Female RK on light In Ann's picture below, of the same bird but from the back, you can clearly see the blue barred tail, indicating that it is a female. Please note that many South Africa field guides get sexing of Rock Kestrels wrong. Sexing Rock Kestrels is not as easy as Common Kestrel, because the female looks very much like a typical male, with spots rather than barring and a blue head. However, the two center tail feathers of the male are totally unbarred, on both sides of the rachis. Note that some females can also have one side of the centre tail feathers unbarred, but the smaller side of the rachis (the outside part) has small bars, and some males show barring on their tails, but not of the center two tail feathers.

The amount of male characteristics in female kestrels has been shown to correlate with age. Unfortunately for scientists and raptor ringers, this has proved not be a reliable way to age a bird, because the amount of change over the years differs from individual to individual. I'll try to expand on the sexing of Rock Kestrels on this web site in the future.

Lesser Kestrel and Amur Falcon sightings - March 2005

Mariana Delport recently did a 2 week vacation trip via the North-Eastern Free State to Kruger NP (Crocodile Bridge and Letaba), then from Phalaborwa to Pretoria, Pilansberg and Augrabies NP. She says that it seemed that many migrating birds were congregating before their migration to the Northern Hemisphere.

Thank you, Mariana, for your more detailed trip report. Below outlines where she saw Lesser Kestrels and Amur Falcons:

We left home (Durbanville area) at 03h30 in the morning and drove in the dark to about Laingsburg. We therefore only had daylight from Laingsburg / Beaufort West. We started seeing Lesser Kestrels, with the odd Amur Falcon in-between, from about Hanover to close to Bloemfontein, where we slept over for one night. The following morning we left at about 06h30 for the Kruger Park, turning off the N1 at Winburg and travelling through Senekal, Bethlehem, Warden, Vrede, Standerton, Ermelo, Lochiel, Badplaas, Baberton, Komatiepoort to Crocodile Bridge, where we stayed for 3 nights. That day we saw large numbers of Amur Falcon, although we saw some Lesser Kestrels around Winburg. We then moved to Letaba, where we stayed for 4 nights. We haven't seen any Lesser Kestrels in Kruger, and only saw Amur Falcon at Mopanie.

I can't remember having seen any Lesser Kestrels or Amur Falcon on the way back to Pretoria, but I did record Amur Falcon at Marievale and Suikerbosrand the following day. No further Lesser Kestrels after that (Pilansberg and then on to Augrabies via Rustenburg, Koster, Lichtenburg, Vryburg, Kuruman and Upington). After 2 nights at Augrabies we left for Beaufort West via Prieska, Britstown and Victoria West. The following morning we left for Cape Town with a "Kaapse draai" via Oudtshoorn and Route 62. We haven't seen any Lesser Kestrels on these drives either.

Rock Kestrel in Plumstead/Diep River is ringed - 2005-03-19

Ann Koeslag reports that one of the Rock Kestrel pair she reported on 15 March 2005 has a metal ring on its leg. This is exciting news because it means we will be able to find out where it comes from and if ringed as a nestling how old it is.
Ann and I will be taking the balchatri out shortly to see if we can catch it.

Rock Kestrels in Plumstead/Diep River - 2005-03-15

Ann Koeslag, active member of the Western Cape Raptor Research Programme at the University of Cape Town reports that she has been seeing a pair of Rock Kestrels in a small industrial complex in Diepriver/Plumstead. She has seen them there for at least 3 years. She took these excellent photos while they were hunting on an open field.

RK pair on light

Call for Volunteers to the help the Western Cape Raptor Research Programme - 2005-03-15

From: Lucia Rodrigues
Email: signet(at)mweb.co.za

As most of you know the WCRRP is based at the FitzPatrick Institute, UCT, and manages a number of research projects focused on the biology and conservation of raptors in the Western Cape Province.
We are still looking for volunteers to assist with fieldwork by adopting a specific site or area to monitor, particularly during the months of August to December. Some areas require a walk up to a cliff, while others are on buildings and quarries which are more easily accessible. If you have 3 to 5 hours to spare twice a month, please respond to this e-mail.
Ample guidance and assistance will be provided to birders who are keen to contribute to the preservation of our raptors.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Lucia Rodrigues.

Lesser Kestrels in Wellington - 2005-03-12

Kim Wright reported the following on capebirdnet:
I went out to Wellington on Saturday evening (12th March) to see the Lesser Kestrels that everybody has been talking about. I realized it was late in the season, but was still hoping to see a few birds. We arrived at the site at about 6.00pm and stayed until it got dark at about 7.30pm. It was a perfect, still evening. It was very disappointing - I can only imagine they must have left already. Has anybody else been out there lately?

Cape Point Reserve - 2005-03-06

Andrew Jenkins and I spent the first four hours of the day right at the Point, hoping to pick up some raptors hunting in the north-west wind. During the breeding season, we had seen Rock Kestrel, Peregrine and Black Eagle in this area.

Conditions were not as we had hoped with a lot of low cloud, strong winds and drizzle. We did get to see one heavily moulting Rock Kestrel which seemed to be using the eastern slope to hunt. In the coming breeding season, this will be a good spot to see if we can pick up a new breeding pair.

Birds of Prey Working Group AGM - Magaliesberg March 2005

There BoPWG is holding its first AGM in the Magaliesberg from 14-18 March 2005. It will start with a two day workshop on ringing and followed by a three day meeting on current project status and the future of the BoPWG.

For more information, look at the following:

Peninsula Outing - 2005-02-20

We drove down the Peninsula from Simon's Town. Swartberg was under south-easter cloud so we went into the Cape Point reserve, stopping briefly at Rooikrans but spending much of the morning at the parking lot at the light house and the Cape of Good Hope Road.

We saw a single Rock Kestrel at Smitswinkel Bay, heading off to the cliffs there. Two Rock Kestrels were seen at Rooikrans, moving off northwards along the coast in the strong south-easter. We also saw a Rock Kestrel perched on the rocks overlooking the Fenicula and Restaurant at the light house parking lot and another was heard alarm calling. We ended off along the Cape of Good Hope road where two Rock Kestrels were hunting in the narrow coastal plains. No other raptors were seen there, although we did see one Steppe Buzzard on the way back perched on the cable of a power line (unusual!).