American Kestrel chicks banded to track their movement

Five American Kestrel chicks, P.E.I.'s smallest falcon, got some jewelry in Hunter River, P.E.I., on Thursday.

The chicks were banded by Dwaine Oakley of Holland College's wildlife conservation technology program for a project to track their movements in the winter and whenthey nest in the summer.

Banding to track movement

"The main purpose of banding different species of birds is to kind of keep track of those populations,"said Oakley, the program's learning manager.

"And through band recoveries, we can actually tell some of the movements, whether the birds are moving long distances, where they're going in the winter time [and] where they're coming back to nest in the summer. It's kind of a low cost way of actually keeping track of some of these populations."

Holland College is conducting the project in partnership with the Hunter-Clyde Watershed Group.

Public education

"I think we're all about bringing wildlife to people that's right in their own backyards, because that's the nature of the Island, people don't notice just how common birds like this are right in their own backyard," said Philip Pineau, vice-president of the watershed group. "So, it's really the public education that we're most interested in."

• A bird's eye view: American Kestrel nest streaming online

The kestrel's are nesting in a box on Pineau's property. This is the second year he's hosted kestrels.

The chicks turned 24 days old on Thursday. During the banding, the mother flew around the nest a couple of times, agitated by the crowd. She also perched in some trees nearby to keep an eye on the chicks.

Oakley said he expects the chicks will leave the nest in the next seven days to learn how to fly and hunt on their own.

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