Birds of Prey Webcams
All across Crown Estate farmland stand bird boxes used for nesting or roosting by birds of prey. This is part of a stewardship scheme run since 1991 and managed in association with The Wildlife and Conservation Partnership.
There are more than fifty boxes at ten Crown Estate sites in England, all of which are monitored and maintained by the Wildlife Conservation Partnership.
There was an exciting new development in 2006 in the shape of discreet webcams being installed in two of the nesting boxes – one occupied by kestrels, the other by barn owls. This was initiated and managed our local agents Carter Jonas.
The Kestrels
Earlier in the summer the first webcam was trained on a pair of kestrels. Although the first pictures received from within the nesting box were promising, there were unforeseen technical issues - not least of which was the habit of the kestrel pair of using the webcam antenna as a perch!
The story had a happy ending, however, as the pair successfully fledged five young in early July, which were regularly seen around the estate for the remainder of the summer. One of the youngsters was found hanging in a tree by its legs, caught up in fibre twine, but once cut free and disentangled from the cord it appeared no worse for wear. Once released it promptly flew back to perch on top of the nest box.
For a selection of kestrel webcam images, please follow the link.
The Owls
With the demise of the kestrels’ radio antenna, the barn owl webcam went live in July, this time using a cable feed from the box for the images. This method was free from avian mischief and resulted in much improved images.
Although breeding very late in the season (about a month behind what would normally be expected), the pair successfully produced a brood of several young, although the ultimate fate of all the fledgings is unknown.
At the bottom of this page is a series of webcam images detailing the progress of the owlets before any left the nesting box at the end of August - please follow the link.
For more information on the nesting boxes project please contact:
Danny Connolly
Rural Estate
The Crown Estate
16 New Burlington Place
London
W1S 2HX
telephone 020 7851 5195
 email 
Richard Bramley
Carter Jonas
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB2 1NH
telephone 01223 346 629
email 
Colin Shawyer
Wildlife Conservation Partnership
2 Mill Wk
Wheathampstead
St Albans
AL4 8DT
Hertfordshire
telephone 01582 832 182
fax 01582 832 182
Kestrel Cam Images
 9 May 2006
 12 May 2006
 31 May 2006
 31 May 2006
 5 June 2006
 6 June 2006
Owl Cam Images
 17 July 2006
 21 July 2006
 21 July 2006
 24 July 2006
 25 July 2006
 28 July 2006
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