Kestral Program

Kestrel Program
Kestrel box cleaning during the 2001 field season.	Most travelers don’t even notice the small wooden boxes attached to the back of signs along Interstate 89 between Bethel and Highgate. But to a hand-full of winged travelers, these boxes are home sweet home – and a place to raise a family for the summer. These seasonal visitors are American Kestrels (Falco sparverius); blue-jay-sized falcons arriving in Vermont in the spring from wintering grounds that are as far away as Tierra del Fuego on the very tip of South America. Since 1995 VTrans has been collaborating with the Vermont Institute for Natural Sciences (VINS) in building, installing, and maintaining nesting boxes for kestrels. Kestrels are the smallest and most colorful raptors in North America. They are graceful, fast, and powerful fliers, known for their remarkable ability to hover.
Kestrels, sometimes referred to as sparrow hawks, are cavity nesters that rarely inhabit typical bowl-shaped stick nests. Instead they select a natural hole in a tree, a woodpecker’s hole, a cavity in a cliff, an enclosed space in a tall building, or a nesting box for their home. Nesting boxes on the backs of interstate signs are prime real estate for kestrels. They provide high predator-proof locations with clear views of their surrounding hunting territory along the clear grassy rights-of-way.	Young Kestrel ready for banding
The VTrans Kestrel Program was developed by John Narowski P. E., Environmental Services Engineer and Gil Newbury District 8 Transportation Administrator. John and Gil joined forces with folks in the Structures, Maintenance, Pavement Management, and VINS and built the first 10 boxes for less than one hundred dollars in materials and one day of their volunteer time. Today, the Kestrel Program continues to be a collaborative effort within VTrans. At least twice a year VTrans' Environmental Section visit the boxes and the birds. In the fall, when the birds have gone, the old nesting material is cleaned out and prepared for the next nesting season with a new layer of wood shavings. In the summer, with help and guidance from VINS, the eggs and the young are counted and banded. Hopefully, the banding efforts will shed some light on the mysterious migrating habits of these birds. Since 1995, 76 kestrel fledglings have hatched, and four orphaned young were fostered, in the VTrans boxes – a significant return on a minimal investment. While this is only a very small portion of what the Environmental Section does, the Kestrel Program is quickly becoming a symbol of VTrans’ commitment to conducting business in an environmentally sensitive way.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BANDING OF KESTRELS...(click here) Article written by Chris Slesar, an Environmental Specialist for VTrans. For more information on establishing a nest box program for American Kestrels along an interstate highway, please visit: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/kestrel/index.htm For more information on Kestrels or other Raptors please visit the VINS website: http://www.vinsweb.org/.

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