Howdy folks,
The 2016 American Kestrel Nest box monitoring program on the Sandy Mush GL is
off to a great start this season. We currently have 10 nests with four nests
being initiated in late March, setting a record for the program. Five nests
are in various stages of the egg laying and incubation phase, four nests have
nestlings and one nest was destroyed by the invasive European Starling. We
anticipate at least 1-2 more nests for the season. We are currently monitoring
21 nest boxes on the game lands with a few located on private land. Thanks to
a recent 178 acre prescribed burn on the Madison County side of the game land
that opened up the habitat making it more suitable, kestrels moved into nest
box 5, a box that has never been used in 6 years. Prescribed burning is a
valuable tool used to help restore the native vegetation of the early
successional habitat that the kestrels need to thrive.
Thursday morning (yesterday) we color banded 7 nestlings (5 females and 2
males) from two nest boxes. Mark Hopey of Southern Appalachian Raptor Research
banded the nestlings and was assisted by three Haywood Community College
Wildlife students who are helping to monitor the nest boxes. Educational
outreach is an important component of our banding program and Erwin High
Schools Special Education Biology and Applied Science Class was invited to come
out and participate in our first kestrel nestling banding session of the
season. Fourteen students and teachers got hands on experience with the
banding process and gained valuable insight about kestrel biology, their role
in the food chain and the management activities that the NCWRC does to provide
quality habitat for the kestrels and other critters.
Each kestrel nestling gets a unique color combination enabling biologists to
track their movements when sighted across the landscape. Since 2011 we have
banded 150 nestlings and anticipate banding around 40 this season. We have
seen some banded kestrels over the years at some of our nest boxes and in the
surrounding fields, but have not been able to successfully identify all of
them. We currently have a banded male with just a USGS metal band at one of
our boxes, but have not been able to check all the adults in the area yet, so
we are hoping to find some banded adults out there. If you are out birding and
happen to see a banded kestrel please report your findings to the NCWRC.
We would also like to invite any member of the Elijah Mitchell Audubon Society
to join us in a banding session next Friday, May 20 at the parking lot off Old
HWY 20 (sometimes called Marshall Rd) where the road crosses Turkey Creek (aka
Dead Dog Parking Lot). We plan on meeting around 0800 and will band 5 kestrel
nestlings there, then move over to Martin Candler Rd (41 Martin Candler Rd is a
nearby address) and band 5 kestrel nestlings from the box along the road just
before the substation. I anticipate us making it over there by around 0930, so
if you can't make the 0800 banding, stop by for the latter one. We will be
parking at the nest box in the Road on Martin Candler Rd, so if you get there
before we do go to the end of the road and hang out in the parking lot on the
right till you see us caravan over. While waiting you can scope the kestrels
at that parking lot for any bands. They are nesting in the leaning box on the
parking lot side.
I will send out a notification next Thursday to verify that we are still on.
Hope to see many of you there. I've attached a couple pics for you to observe.
Call, text or email if you have any questions.
Thanks
Joe
Joe Tomcho
Conservation Tech I
NC Wildlife Resources Commission
Mailing Address: 78 Wildlife Lane
Burnsville, North Carolina 28714
office: 828-682-6718 // cell: 828-284-0778
ncwildlife.org<http://ncwildlife.org/>
________________________________
Email correspondence to and from this sender is subject to the N.C. Public
Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
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