We have a well established, but small (6 apartments in a 12-room house and 8 gourds). For a week we've had a Kestrel trying to get "up close and personal" with our Martin housing. I understand with a large colony, there will be enough Martins to run them off, but not sure how that will play out with our small colony, and this early with only about half our Martins back. (He also seems to only come around when most of the Martins are gone.) Could his aggressiveness actually scare our Martins away? We don't know what to do other than yell at him... clap hands... scare him off at the moment. (I assume Kestrels are protected?)
Thank you.
Kestrel has been annoying my Martins for a week
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Ginny Pres
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 10:26 am
- Location: Missouri, Raymore (south of KC)
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Bird Brain
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 9:22 am
- Location: Highland Village, TX
- Martin Colony History: 2022-visitors, 2023-visitors, 2024-1 pair, fledged 4
I bet one of those air horns that people use at football games would scare him. They're really loud and annoying.
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Jones4381
- Posts: 779
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:54 pm
- Location: Southwestern VA
- Martin Colony History: 2020- 0
2021- 1 pair-5
2022- 5 pair-20
2023 34 pair-44
2024 30 pair-122
Had a big ole Red Shouldered Hawk who'd fly right up onto the top post of an SK pole couple years ago and finnally moved onto a better perch I believe. Like you this was more early in the season as it was hunting to feed its young with smaller ground choices. Didn't effect the Martins here for any concernable duration (except my nerves and worryGinny Pres wrote: ↑Mon Mar 31, 2025 7:38 pmWe have a well established, but small (6 apartments in a 12-room house and 8 gourds). For a week we've had a Kestrel trying to get "up close and personal" with our Martin housing. I understand with a large colony, there will be enough Martins to run them off, but not sure how that will play out with our small colony, and this early with only about half our Martins back. (He also seems to only come around when most of the Martins are gone.) Could his aggressiveness actually scare our Martins away? We don't know what to do other than yell at him... clap hands... scare him off at the moment. (I assume Kestrels are protected?)
Thank you.
) I think you'll be fine."Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." - Lao Tzu
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Ginny Pres
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 10:26 am
- Location: Missouri, Raymore (south of KC)
Thanks for the comments. An air horn would surprise him! I don't know if hubby yelling and clapping at him scared him or if he was just ready to move on at the time. We haven't seen him the last couple of days, so perhaps he came to the conclusion there was nothing here, yet? We turned our 12-room house into a 6-room, and the holes are starling excluder holes, so it protects the eggs and babies pretty well, but a couple of times, this big bird stuck his head in and managed to pull the door open a little. It was well latched... especially the second time!
Our Martins are still arriving. We've already caught and done away with a couple of sparrow pairs. Between the Martins establishing their territory and our efforts, we haven't had much sparrow problem the last few years, but we sure don't need these big bird problems! We do see red tail hawks perched further out from the house, but we've never see one of them stop and snoop like this Kestrel.
Our Martins are still arriving. We've already caught and done away with a couple of sparrow pairs. Between the Martins establishing their territory and our efforts, we haven't had much sparrow problem the last few years, but we sure don't need these big bird problems! We do see red tail hawks perched further out from the house, but we've never see one of them stop and snoop like this Kestrel.