Uncommon breeding residents.

KestreIs were persecuted by gamekeepers in the nineteenth century until their chief diet of small mammals began to be appreciated, especially after the great vole plagues of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was then generally left alone by ‘keepers, and numbers began to increase. One however was found on a Gamekeepers, “gibbet” in a spinney near Box Wood in 1965.

From the 1930’s there was an increase in urban breeding and this probably helped the species survive better the effects of Organochlorine Pesticides which caused another decline in their numbers in rural areas between 1959 and 1963. They were also affected by the bad winter of 1962/1963.

Foster (1914) described Kestrels as, “common near Stevenage, nesting in big woods”. Gladwin (1985) referred to there being 60 records for the Stevenage area in 1975 and 14 pairs in the 10 kilometre square (TL22) surrounding the town in 1978.

They were confirmed as breeding from three of Stevenage’s tetrads in both the 1973 and 1992 Breeding Atlases and, from two in the 2012 Atlas (the tetrads covering Pin Green and, Aston.) A pair were seen displaying over Aston Allotments on 13 April 2016.

A, “nestling” ringed at Kimpton Mill on 7 June 2011 was found dead near Stevenage on 25 August 2011.

The 2012 Winter Atlas recorded their presence from nine of the tetrads covering Stevenage.

At Watery Grove their presence during the breeding season was recorded from 1977 onwards, with one breeding territory being held in 1979. 

Some unusual records: two young birds were seen on the roof of Astonbury Manor House on 11 June 1978; a female roosted under the eaves of Astonbury Manor House during January and February 1979; a pair nested in a straw stack at Astonbury Farm in 1979 rearing three young; two seen roosting in one of Stevenage’s Tower Blocks in November and December 1981; two juvenile birds seen, “dust bathing” Dene Lane, Aston on 15 July 2008.