(Note: Our friends at The Nature Conservancy sent the following item for a little summer fun distraction and to help UtahPolicy.com readers engage with the natural world. See also a terrific blog post, Life, Death & Bird Cam Drama at the Great Salt Lake, posted by TNC’s Larisa Bowen about the Kestrel project.)
If you want to get a front row seat to the wonders of nature, put a smile on your face or simply escape for a few minutes, check out baby kestrels inside a nest box equipped with a live camera at The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve! five American kestrels just hatched, weeks after a female laid her eggs and the parents watched over them.
The Great Salt Lake is home to waterfowl, long-legged shore birds and birds that feed on the area’s abundant brine shrimp and brine flies. Upland birds like the kestrel, a member of the falcon family, make their home in the surrounding grasslands and wetlands. Here, the kestrel feasts on voles and mice, keeping the rodent population under control.
Andrea Nelson – TNC’s UT Chapter Community Engagement Manager and an avid birder – initially suggested setting up the kestrel camera. “We have more than 300 species of birds at the Great Salt Lake at different times of the year, migrating in and migrating out. The kestrels are just a little – yet integral – part of this beautiful natural area.”
Chris Brown, the chapter’s Stewardship Director, is very familiar with these birds, which hover over the ground while hunting. “Pairs of kestrels have been living in this nest for 13 years. When I’m working around their home, they start chattering loudly. I think they’re asking me to be quiet or move away from their space,” adds Chris with a smile.
The live camera is designed to engage people in the wonders of nature. Learn more and enjoy the view by clicking here. You can also visit the preserve and take an audio tour through the TravelStorys GPS app.
