Kestrels and Red-tails in Lancaster County

     I see many American kestrels and red-tailed hawks in Lancaster County through the year, particularly in farmland, but not necessarily the same individuals.  Some birds of each species nest here but move out in autumn, others migrate through during spring and fall, and still others raised young elsewhere and winter locally.  Both these adaptable and common species prey on field mice, but kestrels also catch and eat larger insects in summer, and red-tails take squirrels, rats and similar-sized creatures as well.  Females of these species, as with all hawks, eagles and owls, are a bit larger than their mates.  It could be the females are bigger to better defend their eggs and small young.  And it could be that males are smaller and quicker on the hunt to provide food for their families while their mates are brooding eggs and small chicks.       
     Both these species are beautiful, as all hawks are.  Male kestrels are mottled orange, black and gray, with distinctive black "whiskers" on each cheek.  Females and young of the year are mostly brown with dark barring that camouflages them.
     Red-tail genders are similar with brown upper sides, white chests and bellies and dark speckling across the bellies.  Young red-tails have brown tails until they are three years old.  At that age, as adults, they have orange tails that distinguish them. 
     I mostly see the kestrels perched on roadside wires in cropland and on trees along the grassy shoulders of expressways at all times of year.  There they watch for prey along roadsides and in adjacent fields.  One time in March, I saw a male kestrel drop to a recently plowed field to eat earthworms.  Another time in April about a dozen of these little raptors were ingesting small beetles from a field of short alfalfa.  Each falcon hovered into the wind a few seconds, then dropped to grab the insect in its sharp talons.  Kestrels frequently flap rapidly into the wind just enough to hold a stationary position in the air as they watch the ground for victims.  Their hovering in the air is entertaining, and identifies these small falcons.
     Red-tails stand upright and quietly on tree limbs, poles and fence posts in fields and along highways, on power towers in fields, and in trees in older suburban areas to watch for prey.  When  vulnerable victims are spotted, those hawks power off their perches to grab them in their sharp and powerful claws.     
     Red-tails begin courting in January.  One can see pairs of them perched together in trees or soaring with each other high in the sky.  Pairs of these large, fierce predators take over crow or heron nests in trees in farmland, suburbs, hedgerows and woodland edges.  The one to three young red-tails are mostly on their own by early June. 
     Kestrels start courting early in March.  Pairs of these little falcons hatch two to four young in tree hollows, barns and boxes erected for them to nest in.  However, some pairs of kestrels must compete with screech owls, squirrels, wood ducks and other cavity nesters to get a nesting site.  Kestrel offspring fledge sometime in June.
     Both these species are north-bound during March, and the kestrels into April as well.  And kestrels are south-bound in August and September, for the most part.  Red-tails, in keeping with their ruggedness, come south mostly in October and November.
     Watch for these two kinds of hawks through each year in Lancaster County, and elsewhere.  They are entertaining and a common part of the wild in farmland and suburban areas.