Kestrel Nest Box at Cummings School Hosts its First Set of Chicks

A pair of American kestrels perched high on a nest box was a special sight this spring and summer at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. The box was placed 11 years ago on campus for just this occasion—the hatching and fledging of kestrel chicks.

The clutch of five American kestrels at Cummings School makes 14 chicks hatched this season in Grafton nest boxes. Troy Gipps, a volunteer with the Grafton Land Trust (GLT) for more than 15 years, serving as vice president and director, and the editor of Massachusetts Wildlife magazine, led the initiative to erect 10 kestrel nest boxes throughout Grafton in 2014 and has diligently attended to them ever since.

“Finding a female incubating eggs in the Tufts box this spring was surprising,” says Gipps. “The box had been there for a decade, and this was the first time kestrels chose it as a nest site. It’s one thing to see birds of prey on the property; it’s something else to know they have a nest and are rearing chicks there. It says a lot about the habitat. They can find the resources they need at Tufts [Cummings School]; there’s enough prey for a pair of kestrels to raise five chicks.”

The smallest falcon in North America and one of only three falcon species in Massachusetts (along with peregrine and merlin), the American kestrel has seen a precipitous decline across North America. The Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan lists American kestrels as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

Since kestrels don’t excavate their own nesting sites, they often use tree hollows, woodpecker holes, and structures like nest boxes. They nest in open areas with few trees, including meadows, grasslands, and farmlands, ideal for hunting insects and rodents with their unique ability to see ultraviolet light to detect urine trails leading to prey.

“Kestrels are feisty, small birds that hold their own,” says Whitney Stiehler, program administrator at Tufts Wildlife Clinic (TWC), in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at Cummings School. “They’re one of the only birds of prey that you can tell if they’re male or female by their feather growth. Not many birds can hover in place to go after prey, and they are so fast.”

Gipps spearheaded the kestrel nest box project in Grafton after learning about the bird’s decreasing numbers and the success of other nest box programs at a Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition conference.

“I had actually never seen a kestrel before,” says Gipps. “But I knew if we had a suitable habitat, there was a chance the project could work. Our results clearly show that even someone like me, with no formal ornithology training, can work with volunteers to set up a successful nest box program.”

GLT has a history of erecting nest boxes to help local species. Robert Aberg, president of GLT, says of the nest box project, “Grafton Land Trust is all about conserving open space and being good land stewards here in town. We wanted to visibly demonstrate what that means by going beyond trees and trails.”

To find suitable field habitats for the boxes, Gipps surveyed a topographic map of the town, as kestrels need a minimum of 40 acres of open land. He identified 10 locations on GLT land, Town of Grafton Conservation Commission property, private land, and the Cummings School campus.

On GLT’s board of directors at the time was Lori Muhr, senior program coordinator in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Cummings School. She connected Gipps with Tufts Wildlife Clinic to scout out the best spot on campus to attract kestrels.

“The great thing about Tufts [Cummings School] is that they have a habitat and were willing to let us put a box on the property,” says Gipps. “Most of the GLT property is heavily forested. Without partnerships with organizations like Tufts, the program wouldn’t have worked.”

MassWildlife donated the 10 nest boxes, and GLT funded the purchase of 16-foot nest box poles, sheet metal to wrap around each pole as a predator guard against animals like raccoons, and a ladder to access and maintain the boxes. Over one weekend, Gipps, along with help from 25 GLT volunteers, erected the boxes across Grafton. For the last 11 years, he has monitored the nest boxes, prepping the boxes in early spring by filling each with a few inches of Aspen wood shavings as a nesting substrate, and cleaning them out after the nesting season.

The first kestrel nest appeared in the spring after the boxes were set up. The second year saw two nests. GLT has since had a nesting pair every year but one, and each nest box egg that hatched led to a chick successfully fledging. MassWildlife banded many of the fledglings to aid in tracking the movement and migratory patterns of the species.

In early April of this year, a kestrel was spotted perched on top of the Cummings School box, presumably claiming and protecting its new nesting site.

“This is the first time we’ve had three nests in one year and the first nest for the Tufts [Cummings School] box,” says Gipps. “Persistence has paid off. We have now put out 51 fledglings from one town since the project began.”

Muhr reached out to Cummings School’s agricultural team to request that they not mow within a 50-foot radius of the box to avoid scaring the kestrels and to keep the grass high so that mice continue to roam the area.

“After all this time, it was very exciting when Troy said we have eggs,” says Muhr. “I sent off a flurry of urgent texts throughout campus. I was concerned for the safety of the parents starting to lay and incubate eggs and wanted to ensure that it’s a suitable environment for feeding.”

In mid-June, the clutch of five eggs hatched in the Cummings School nest box, four males and one female. The first chick fledged in mid-July, and one by one over several days, the siblings followed.

“It was a happy surprise that after 11 years, a pair of kestrels finally set up shop here,” says Aberg. “People working at Cummings School care deeply for animals, both wild and domestic. The Wildlife Clinic has an obvious strong connection to projects like this. We are elated that the school has been patient with us all these years. Before this project, kestrel sightings were relatively rare in Grafton—now it is a regular occurrence.”

Stiehler agrees, “The boxes are definitely making a difference. Kestrels readily use the boxes when they find them. We see hurt, sick animals, and try to heal all our wildlife and release them back to nature. To witness a happy story from start to finish right outside our window is so exciting. When we can see the natural world acting like the natural world is supposed to, it’s very fun for us.”