Friday, September 14, 2007

The American Kestrel

Hello everyone. I am thinking of embarking on a noble project here in Maryland to raise awareness and hopefully (one day) bring back a healthy population of American Kestrels to the Free State. There has been a noticeable decline of this species on the East (and West) Coasts of the US.

Experts speculate that reasons for the decline could be anything from global warming to predation to extreme loss of habitat, including areas of food sources nesting habitat. There is much to learn about what is going on with this species, but every little bit of data helps. So I'll be doing some work with this website: www.mdkestrel.com.

I plan to work with the State's farmers, wildlife experts, hikers, birders and anyone else who might be interested to help add important data to the research regarding the Kestrel's decline in population.

In the meantime, check out this wonderful photo of Craig from USFWS with the injured falcon from the rescue that occured a short while back. I am awaiting a medical update on the bird, but at last report, the bird was recovering with no lasting damage.

All the best,

Dan Haas

2 comments:

Larry said...

That sounds like a great project!I don't see a lot of Kestrels in CT., but I do see a lot of stores and housing projects going up where fields used to be.

Andy said...

I've been noticing a decline in Kestrels in the last couple of years. I used to see them frequently outside of Chicago but I can't remember the last time I saw one.

Good plan, I'd like to see the outcome.

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