Our new Hack Pen has been well used in recent weeks. The first birds to use it were an adult male and a young female Kestrel, which came in separately but were released together after a few days to get used to the area around the Hack Pen.
We installed trail cams in the area to monitor if they were returning to the Pen to feed, because we continue to put food out for a week or two after release. The footage shows that the young female seems to visit frequently, but the male appears to have left the area.
Interestingly, some of the footage appears to show an older female, which was often seen when the falconers visited the area to put out food. We presume that this is her territory and she is taking advantage of the free food!
Following their successful release, the Hack Pen was in use again, this time with a single female Kestrel. She had been brought to us from a local vets after being found with a broken wing. She was kept in a small box to limit the amount of movement to allow her wing to heal, but she had other ideas! This fiesty bird was an expert at escape and was frequently found sitting on top of the box, despite our best efforts to keep her contained! This showed us that she was a fighter and we were confident that she would be a suitable candidate for release.
After a final vet check, she was placed in the Hack Pen for a few days to give her some space to build up muscle condition again. We opened the Pen last week and were very pleased to see her fly strongly out across the fields and even perform a small hover before disappearing from view.