In the basement of the Kamm family cottage there hang about 20 fishing poles. The only time many of them get a glimpse of the water is when the pipes are sweating in the heat of summer. But those that do get used, occasionally need to be fixed and maintained, so that a couple of weekends a year, someone can attempt to make their fishing license worth the cost. Cue my dad, fixer of all things broken. This time it was the reel on one of those poles that needed attention, something wasn’t quite right with it. The line was not keeping itself in neat order upon reeling in, instead it balled up, creating a nightmarish spiderweb within the reel housing. I’m not going to say that I’m inept or that the skills of my father have skipped a generation, but I will say that at that age I lacked the patience or understanding to fix something like that, along with many other things.
It was late afternoon when the reel was put back together, ready to be put to the test. The vacant lot next to the cottage provided the perfect place to see if the reel would create another birds nest or if it was time to be put in the water. A weight was attached to the swivel so the line would soar across the lot once casted. The first cast went across the lot and was reeled in smoothly, without issue. But one test hardly can conclude anything, so it was cast out again. Upon reel in, something happened that I had not expected. All I saw was a small blur descend upon the weight as I continued to reel in. I paused the reeling to attempt to figure out what was actually happening, but the ghostly object had disappeared into a nearby tree. So I reeled in again, but again the blur attacked the weight. This time, however, it did not disappear into the trees giving me a chance to figure out what exactly was happening.
I’m not sure where I pulled it out of, but my brain put it together: what I was seeing was a Kestrel and it was attacking the weight. The small raptor had apparently misidentified the fishing weight as a rodent and was intent on taking it. It curiously hopped around the weight as I tried to bring it back home, before it found itself in the belly of the falcon. Each time the weight responded to my reeling, the Kestrel jumped at it, testing it with its talons, confused as to what it was and why it was still moving. It was like a house cat playing with a toy. Eventually the Kestrel decided against trying to consume this new species of rodent and perched up in the Buckeye tree for the remainder of the evening. Energy, it probably thought, should be spent on looking for actual food.
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| An American Kestrel from the canals of Lake Apopka, Florida. Seen in December on our second day. |
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| The most frequent view of a Kestrel I seem to get. |
The lake side of the Kamm family cottage has an open floor plan; kitchen, dining room, and living room are one continuum, distinguished from one another by only the furniture that resides there. On three sides of the continuum are sliding glass doors, which give great views of the lake, or the neighbors, depending on which direction you’re facing. Generally, the east and west facing doors have the curtains drawn in the morning. The east because we would be blinded by the rising sun and the west, well I don’t know why the west is closed, its just the way it is. Each morning at the cottage starts exactly the same as the one before: everyone wakes up at their own time, files out of their respective rooms, sits down on one of the old recliners or the dining table chairs, and watches the TV, usually a nature show, which I often find ironic.
The morning after the Kestrel evening, a few of us were up and in our chairs with TV on when a loud thud against the eastern sliding glass door startled everyone in their seats. No one thought anything of it until a little bit later when I went outside. There in the grass was a Kestrel, feathers ruffled and neck at an unfortunate angle, no movement to be seen. That was 10 or 15 years ago now and was the first Kestrel I really remember seeing; I’m not sure I’ve seen one at the cottage since. Fortunately, elsewhere I see them with regularity now that I am looking and they are the most common Falcon in the U.S. They frequent power lines next to open fields, scanning below for small rodents. I saw one just the other day hovering like a helicopter over a highway median.
Since the time of the window strike I’ve learned a lot about birds, including birds of prey, the category that I think most of everyone is familiar with. Kestrels fall into this category, but something I learned recently, which was surprising to me, is that Kestrels, along with the rest of the Falconiformes order, are
more closely related to parrots than hawks. Yes, study of DNA has revealed that despite similar appearances and habits, Falcons have closer ties to the “exotic” birds of the Psittaciformes order. The similarities that Falcons and Hawks share are simply superficial and are an example of convergent evolution, the evolution of similar traits or characteristics across separate groups of organisms.
Another thing I’ve learned is that although American Kestrels are the most common falcon in the U.S., their population has declined by 1.39% every year between 1966 and 2017 a stat provided by the
North American Breeding Bird Survey. So although it was only one Kestrel that hit the window and died, it was one that contributed to that decline, a decline that if continued, will mean a 50% population loss by the year 2075 according to
All About Birds. Much of this decline has been attributed to the removal of dead trees, which these small falcons use for nesting, an issue that effects many birds and one I’ve
discussed before. The death of this Kestrel also contributed to another stat: death by window strike. It is estimated that between
100 million and 1 billion birds die each
year due to window strikes, and that’s just for the United States.
Fortunately there are things that can and should be done. If you are thinking about removing dead trees or trees with cavities on your property, reconsider doing so. These types of trees are essential to the lifecycle of many bird species, not just the Kestrel. But if you don’t have dead trees, there is an alternative. Similarly to Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, and Purple Martins, Kestrels seem to take to artificial nest boxes. I have no experience with using nest boxes, but if you have the right habitat and are in the proper region (pretty much all of the U.S.) you can build your own
nest box and register it with the
American Kestrel Partnership. If window strikes (for any bird species) are an issue at your home, there are multiple
options to help reduce these strikes. While things like climate change and larges scale habitat destruction can seem like impossible things to tackle on your own, there are the options above which
can make a difference.
If you would like to see some live nest cams of Kestrels, check the links below:
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