The 2016 American Kestrel Falcon season is upon us. Preparation has begun  with maintenance to our 2 nest boxes. The The Kestrel 2 nest box on March 21 & the H.M.K.T. nest box on March 27.  Cameras are up and running.

For the ease of ID. Female Kestrel will be FK. & the Male Kestrel will be MK.

March 26/2016 at 10:23 am. FK has only been sited once on the H.M.K.T. 

April 14/2016 at 6:55 pm. a Male Northern Flicker entered the H.M.K.T. nest box & has stayed the night.

April 15/2016 the Male Flicker was in and out of the nest box several times until  about 10:45 am. MK. had finally made an appearance & made the  flicker vacate the nest box Soon after the MK. showed up a FK. appeared  & the courtship started. Both entering the H.M.K.T. nest box they  began their courtship rituals, with the MK. in his submissive posture  they chatted away.. This went off & on for several hours. At 1:02  pm. the MK. made a kill & gave it to the FK. They were last seen at  6:22 that evening. That night both our nest boxes had Northern Flickers  stay the night.

April 16/2016 The 2 male Northern Flickers had dominated both nest boxes until 4:50  pm. then the MK. & FK. kicked them out. MK. then proceeded to offer  FK a mouse kill, she accepted.(part of the mating ritual). FK. stayed  the night in H.M.K.T. nest box & MK. stayed the night in the  Kestrel-2 nest box.

April 17/2016 MK. was up early & out of the nest box at 6:37 am. while FK. slept in.

April 18/2016 MK stayed the night in kestrel-2 nest box & FK stayed the night in the H.M.K.T. nest box. They are out hunting most of the day.

April 19/2016 MK. stayed the night in kestrel-2 nest box & FK did not stay in nest box has not been seen today.

May 7/2016 Both MK. & FK. have been sleeping together every night since April 24/2016 in H.M.K.T. nest box.

May 7/16 1st. egg.          May 10/16 2nd egg.         May 12/16  3rd egg.          May 14/16 4th egg.          May 16/16 5th egg.

May 21/2016 Since May 9/2016 FK has been staying the night with eggs in H.M.K.T. nest box & MK has been staying the night in Kestrel-2 nest box. Incubation has approximately started on May 19/2016  both have been sharing the incubation duties.

May 26/16 Incubation will last approximately 30-35 days. Tune in to see when the eggs hatch!!

June 10/2016 Everything is going well with FK now doing 95% of incubation. MK is doing his duties protecting the nest and providing meals for FK.  Soon the eggs will hatch then the action will start. Check back frequency

June 11/2016 1st egg of 5 has hatched at approximately 12:30 am. At this time you can see the egg fragment on the top right of the screen.  Turn up your sound to here the chick chirp. Watch closely for the other eggs to hatch. At 5:49am. MK has mouse and lands on H.M.K.T. FK leaves box and surprise 2 eggs have hatched and there are 2 chicks. By 1:45 pm. 4 of the 5 eggs have hatched.

June 12/2016 The 5th egg has hatched during the night, time is unavailable. MK,  FK and family are doing well.

June 18/2016  MK. & FK. taking good care of the 5 healthy young. Today they are 1 week old and doing well. Feeding is quite frequent . Below are 2 photos from our live stream.