CAMBRIDGE, Md. - Researchers hope to reverse the steady disappearance of Maryland’s most common falcon here on the Eastern Shore using breeding boxes in Dorchester County.
According to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, the breeding population of American kestrels has seen a sustained decline on the Eastern Shore for decades. Data collected between 2020-2024 showed no confirmed cases of kestrel breeding in Dorchester County, according to the wildlife refuge.
The smallest falcons in North America, kestrels are commonly found throughout the rest of Maryland, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DNR says the blackbird-sized raptors utilize a variety of habitats including parks, suburbs, open fields, and forest edges.
Blackwater NWR says the Maryland Farmland Raptor Program has installed four new nesting boxes in the refuge in the past month to encourage the kestrels’ return to the Eastern Shore.
That effort could already be producing results. On Wednesday, March 4, Blackwater NWR said volunteer Ron Ketter captured a photo of a male kestrel in the area of one of the new nesting boxes. Officials say male kestrels establish their territory in the early spring and search for nesting cavities that could attract females. If the male chooses to move into the nesting box, the sighting could hopefully lead to Dorchester County reporting its first breeding pair of kestrels in years later this spring.