| The Essex County Ornithological Club is sponsoring a program to
install and maintain nest boxes for North America's smallest falcon,
the American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, whose numbers are rapidly declining in the
northeast portion of the country. Though reasons for this decline are
still unclear at the present time habitat loss and the lack of
suitable nest holes have been mentioned as contributing factors.
Nest boxes should be placed in open fields, meadows or along hedgerows
next to open areas. A grassy habitat should be near the box so
kestrels can use it for hunting. By placing the box within at least
one acre of open habitat and spacing multiple boxes roughly one half
mile apart, you’ll increase the likelihood of attracting breeding
birds.
A limited number of nest boxes and poles are available. Should you
own or know of suitable habitat with a willing host within Essex
County for the placement of a kestrel nest box and wish to participate
in this program please contact the ECOC Webmaster Phil Brown at ecocmail@comcast.net
"Click Here"
for a 2008 summary & the Spring 2009 nest box clean out
results
| The first pole mounted nest box was installed in
September of 2007 on Sharon & Joe Stichter's property in
Newbury, MA. The combination of open fields, nearby perches and
very gracious hosts make this location ideal. Thank you both!
"Click" on any image for a
larger photo. |
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"Click" on any image for a larger photo...
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Habitat & more... |
The good folks at
Appleton Farms in Ipswich,
a TTOR property, allowed us to install two
nest boxes, one at either end of their
fabulous property. |
|
Strawberry Hill, Ipswich
Through the efforts of Jim Berry,
past President of the ECOC &
Beth O'Connor, working for the
Town of Ipswich, we were able
to install a nest box on the
Strawberry Hill property along
Jeffrey's Neck Road in Ipswich. |
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|
James Styles (seen below) worked through
both the permission and installation phases for the
placement of a nest box on the New England Biolabs property in
Ipswich.
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Glen Cook of Cider Hill
Farm in Amesbury kindly allowed a nest box to be placed on
their environmentally friendly farm.
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The fine people at
Salisbury Beach State Park
granted us permission to install two
nest boxes along the entrance road.
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One pole mounted the
other on an
unused Osprey platform.
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Mark Richey, owner of
Mark Richey Woodworking off of Parker Street in
Newburyport, allowed us to install a pole mounted box at the
back of his pond. You can see the box to the right
of his fabulous wind turbine. |
 |
Larry Morris of Witch Hollow Farm in Boxford granted us
permission to install a pole mounted box in his field, seen
below. That's Steve Grinley with the shovel on the left
who assisted with the installations at both this and Mark
Richey's property. Thanks Steve!
 |
 Jan Pettengill Richenburg of
Pettengill Farm,
45 Ferry Road,
Salisbury, MA allowed us to
install a box on
a pole at the
back of their lovely Farm. |
The Davis Family of Essex, MA kindly allowed us to install a
box on their Osprey pole off of Western Ave. I've seen
several Osprey fish the pond over the years but none have
used the platform.. yet! |
Information on a successful nest box program being run by Tom
Sayers in Connecticut can be found at:
Northeast Connecticut
Kestrel Program
Further information on the decline of the American
Kestrel can be found at:
From: Hawk
Mountain.Org
http://hawkmountain.org/media/kestrelCSR_June07.pdf
From:
Hawk Migration Association of North America
The Case of the American Kestrel
Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza
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