We had good weather for our second April 2026 kestrel nest box survey in northern Douglas Co. Three weeks ago, on our first survey of the season, we made sure the boxes on our route were clean and had fresh wood chips, but despite the few kestrels along the way, no boxes were occupied. However, the Kestrels have been busy since then. Today 9 of our 18 boxes were occupied, and 14 eggs were seen. In four boxes females remained on the nest when we peeked in with the borescope, potentially hiding more eggs. It will be interesting to check on these boxes again in 2 weeks.
On the Waterville Plateau the over-wintering Rough-legged Hawks are on their way North, replaced by Swainson’s Hawks newly arrived from their wintering grounds in Argentina. We saw five Swainson’s Hawks today. It seems to me that when they first show up in the Spring, they seem especially slow to flush from whatever they are perched on when I step out of the car to take their photo. I’d be slow to get off my pole too if I had just flown many thousands of miles to get here.
