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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2019 Kestrel nestbox project


will help control starlings Raptors serve as biocontrol for fruit pest


by JUDIE STEEVES SUMMERLAND—A new wildlife society is


working with farmers will deliver a three-fold benefit to agriculture and conservation efforts in the Okanagan Valley. The Okanagan Wildlife and Nature Society


this year embarked on the American Kestrel Nestbox Project with the support of $2,000 from the BC Grapegrowers’ Association. The initiative will erect nests on private land bordering the open habitat kestrels require for hunting. Kestrels are the smallest North American falcon species. The project will help control the region’s starling population. Non-native starlings can be devastating to vineyards as well as orchards. While a trapping program has eliminated more than 850,000 of the birds since 2003, growers are always looking for new options to protect their fruit. Matthias Bieber, a bird biologist who works with OWNS, says the kestrels’ presence will frighten off starlings as well as provide competition for them, which should reduce their populations. Kestrels have a large territory, he explains, and will evict starlings from their nesting areas. Not only do growers benefit when


predatory kestrels nest near their farms, but the birds do as well, since many of their natural nesting spots – in holes in snags – have disappeared from the landscape. The nest boxes are a good substitute. A third benefit is the opportunity for education, as OWNS biologists teach interested growers about kestrels and their habits and habitat needs. The fourth is the data that is gathered about the kestrels using the nest boxes through an international organization called the United Kestrel


Partnership. It’s a project of the Peregrine Fund, based in


Boise, Idaho, involving both citizens and professional scientists working collaboratively to understand kestrel demographics and advance conservation. Participating growers are asked to do their


bit by monitoring the nest boxes OWNS erects. Bieber calls it citizen science, involving


weekly checks of the nest boxes by landowners, taking a photo and recording the occupancy, number of eggs or chicks in the box. If a starling has nested in the box, the landowner is expected to remove the nest and at the end of the season, the box needs to be cleaned out and fresh wood chips installed for the next breeding season. Boosting kestrel numbers can also help


reduce numbers of their favourite prey, rodents such as mice, rats, moles and voles. A kestrel family can eat 400 to 500 voles in a season, he notes. Kestrels also eat insects. They are native to the Okanagan but are on the decline across North America, says Bieber. Kestrel populations have declined by 60% in northwestern North America over the past 50 years.


Data for the Great Basin, which includes the


Okanagan, is lacking, but they require open habitat where monoculture farmland has taken over much of the usual habitat. This year, 21 nest boxes designed specifically for kestrels have been erected in the area between Kelowna and Osoyoos. There are three in the Kelowna area, two in Peachland, two in Summerland, two in Naramata and nine in Oliver-Osoyoos. Most are around vineyards, but one is in an orchard.


See NEST on next page o


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Kestrels are the smallest North American falcon species. [FILE PHOTO]


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