Talking about kestrels
For a few years, kestrels have been dominating my fieldwork, my writing and my thoughts. And have you heard the one about the Bishop and the kestrel?
Starting in September and continuing into the following spring, I am going to be talking a lot about kestrels. So far, 13 RSPB groups, 4 natural history or other community groups and two literary festivals have booked one of my talks for next season. This is probably a slight increase over previous years – a good sign that people still enjoy spending the darker evenings coming together to talk about wildlife.
About half of the events are explicitly about kestrels, either by themselves or along with other raptors, and even the other subjects may involve a guest appearance from my current favourite bird. I’ve been writing a lot about kestrels lately, and that’s because I’ve been watching them a lot over the last few years. A book, Windhover is out soon – details to be revealed when my publisher tells me I can make the announcement!
It seems I’ve always liked kestrels. A few months ago, I found an old press cutting with the headline ‘Schoolboy has a Theory About Kestrels’ – probably my first mention in the media. I haven’t been a schoolboy for more than fifty years and the cutting was dated 1971 when I was thirteen. I’d forgotten all about it but came across the tatty yellow document among my late mother’s things, just in time for me to use the story in the introduction to Windhover.
I also found an old notebook that was once sold in RSPB shops – circa 1986. On the cover is a stunning photo by Chris Gomersall of a male kestrel arriving at its nest with prey. I’m guessing it is the only RSPB merch ever to have featured a decapitated baby blue tit. As for the kestrel – I knew him. It was in 1985. I’d been in my first job at the RSPB for a couple of years and had come up with an idea for getting more people out to see birds – by making it easier for them to notice the birds on their doorstep. I’d heard that kestrels were nesting on Peterborough Cathedral, so we rigged a CCTV camera up and cabled live pictures of the growing family down into the nave. It was Springwatch before Springwatch. The Cathedral got more visitors, and we got to enthuse more people. Which of us made the more converts is unrecorded.
The Bishop was pleased, and word got around. In due course, I received a phone call from another Bishop (let’s call him the Bishop of Lichfield). He’d love to do the same next year at his Cathedral. Great! I outlined the logistics, staffing, costs etc. and we agreed in principle to make it happen. “One last thing”, he asked. “When can you bring the kestrels?”
