Nestlings!

Every Season we try to band the Nestlings of the Osprey Platform and Kestrel Boxes. This season was no exception , and was shaping up to be a good season. Between 2 Nest Boxes that I knew were in use, there wher 9 eggs. Although they were about 3 weeks behind last years dates.
 Banding of the Kestrels took place on June 27 and 28th last season as did the Osprey Chicks.  This season they were a little later. July 1st saw the Osperys banded . 2 chicks and 1 Idled egg were in the nest. This brought our total to 12 Osprey banded over 5 seasons! This is a pretty good showing we feel , and look forward to many more seasons of banding the Osprey of Innisfree!

Osprey Chicks with new Stainless Steel Bands

 The Kestrels were just starting to hatch on the 1st of July at Innisfree and and a 2nd box down the road. A third box on the 3rd line fledged (again) before we had checked it! They had atleast 3 chicks as there were 5 Kestrels seen flying about the location on the 27th of June. A box on the 4th line I thought was not used as I had seen Starling often in the vicinity. Today on inspection I learned that the Kestrels I had seen down the road were obviously from this box. That was another 4 young for sure as 6 individuals were seen a few days earlier.

Liam and the Only Kestrel Chick that was Banded

 The boxes at Innisfree and the 2nd line were checked today with poor results! The box with 5 eggs yielded only 1 Chick and 2 Idled eggs. The Box on the 2nd line with 4 eggs , yielded only 2 Idled eggs and alot of Ants!
 Needless to say I was quite disheartened  about the outcome! But that is the way it goes I guess. I try not to disturb nests  and have lost opportunity to Band Nestlings due to not being a little more pro-active of checking the Boxes. So I will endeavour to check all  the boxes atleast twice a nesting season.

 We did replace 1 old box today on the 6th Line and put up a box at a new site on the 5th Line. There will be atleast 10 more Boxes erected in the next 6- 8 months!