Spreading their wings... Kestrel young leave parents’ nest on the Heath
Published: 15 July, 2010
by JOSH LOEB and DAN CARRIER
IT is a rite of passage many parents will remember: the moment their carefully reared offspring finally move out.
And two kestrels who have been raising successive generations of their family on the Heath for the past four years experienced the same emotions this week.
The kestrel “teenagers” flew the nest from the Highgate boating pond near Millfield Lane and began a new life of independence.
Twitcher host of the BBC’s Springwatch nature programme Bill Oddie, who lives in South End Green, said there were two pairs who could be regularly spotted on the Heath.
“There is a pair who live on the Hampstead side and nest in the church on Haverstock Hill, but bring their youngsters to the Heath,” said Mr Oddie. “I saw them flying over my garden the other day en route.”
Mr Oddie added that last summer, the offspring from the Highgate pair had become very approachable as visitors flocked to watch them.
He said: “The youngsters got very tame and fed on the ground. You think of them hovering in the air, but they were jumping about after grasshoppers and other things that got in the way, like discarded cigarette packets.”
Heath bosses the City of London said they had been encouraging the birds of prey by allowing grass to grow longer.
The Corporation’s Heath ecologist Adrian Brooker said: “The Heath is a fantastic place to watch kestrels as they are more approachable here, and from now until late summer can be seen teaching their young how to feed and find the best food sources.”