April 22

End of Another Great Day Afield

     

     I took this photo at the end of another 12 hour day yesterday. The moon was beautiful. The starlings are now very driven to find boxes and get the nesting process underway. Keeping the boxes clear of starlings for the next 10-14 days is going to be increasingly time-consuming. I think I set a new record yesterday and today by eliminating 10 starlings. The box pictured above had 3 starlings eliminated from it in one day. As soon as one was eliminated, another one would move in within the hour. I deal with this by setting a starling trap, continuing on my circuit, and then circling back at regular intervals to see if the trap has been sprung. Most of the boxes that are going to be successful now have paired kestrels at them, but to help ensure that some remaining empty boxes become populated with kestrels it is imperative that starlings be kept at bay. At three different boxes today, I had starlings looking out of the nestboxes with kestrels perched not more than 50 yards away indicating that they were interested, but apparently unwilling to evict the occupants themselves. On 2 different occasions I have seen kestrels kill starlings in the vicinity of boxes, but my experience is that this is rare. The kestrels generally prefer to just move on. 

     Following is some data from this season to demonstrate that this is not simply paranoia on my part. 

     Aborn Farm Box

     4/1  starling eliminated

     4/7  starling eliminated

     4/13 starling eliminated

      4/16  male kestrel at box

        4/18  female kestrel at box

         4/20   pair of kestrels at box

Laughlin Road  west box

4/17   starling eliminated

4/18   starling eliminated

4/20   starling eliminated

    4/21   pair of kestrels at box

     Would these boxes ended up having kestrels using them if I had not intervened at all with the starlings? My answer, based on my experience, is a resounding no. I do realize that there are researchers out there who feel that these situations need to be left alone to run their course to see if, in fact, the starlings do successfully outcompete kestrels for available nestboxes. I am not inclined to allow nature to run its course every season in these types of situations. Left unmanaged, these boxes would just have been starling factories. With kestrels threatened in Connecticut and in steep decline elsewhere in the Northeast, I am unwilling let the starlings have their way.