Kevin The Kestrel

Kestrels take advantage of the cows’ grazing behaviour to help them hunt. We have at least one kestrel on the farm who we call Kevin.

Kestrels love really long grass as it hides lots of little creatures. You can often see them hunting along motorway, above their overgrown verges.

We see Kevin regularly from November to March, and occasionally in between. In these months we are grazing our stockpiled grass. This is also known as deferred grazing. These fields that have been left out of our grazing rotation from the summer to allow them to grow really tall, and stockpiled for winter months when the grass growth really slows. It is also known as standing hay.

Kevin seems to recognise the quad bike and follows us to the field where he watches us move the cows. He then hovers above them waiting for their movement to flush a vole from the long grass. Kestrels need to eat at least 8 voles a day to keep themselves healthy, and Kevin seems to be doing fine so far. You can watch him hunting here.