The Great Kestrel Count 2011 - Reports from the field

Thanks to all of those who participated in The Great Kestrel Count 2011!  Several other bloggers were kind enough to share the event announcement on their blogs.  A few of you emailed me about your experience.  I'd like to share some of those here:

Cheryl Huizinga of Caldwell, Idaho:  "Bob and I went on an early morning outing to War Eagle above Silver City, ID, on the 5th. It was about a 10 mile ride and we saw 28 Kestrels! 3 in 3 groups, 4 in another and 15 flying around together at another spot. Don't think I doubled counted any as the groups were quite far apart. It was fun to keep track for the Kestrel count! And of course I eBirded those counts! Happy Birding!"

Jeff Cooper of Utah reports:  "I got five Kestrels today! I think I accounted for all of them in my eBird submissions."

Dianne Cooper (@DianneBirdgCoo) who also Tweeted her experience live reported:  "4 birds in a bit of the East Kootenay Trench yesterday. Will be going into eBird when chores are done."

Grammie G reported in a comment on this blog:  "I didn't ,and haven't seen the Kestrels in at least 3 weeks here ..I sure hope the return to my tree next year!!"  She had previously commented:  "I was so blessed this spring,...right in my front yard in the Weeping Willow tree branch that hangs over my driveway with a Kestrel family nesting in a cavity in the branch!!  I was able to set just inside my garage door ..50ft from the tree, and watch over a two month period of time 7 babies leave the nest...of course I took photos too!! I did 3 posts in July called "I fell in love with the Kestrel family" if your interested!! I cryed when the last left!!" (Check out her three part Kestrel segment at Grammie's Ramblings.)

Susan Gray of Utah relates: "I got in 2 kestrels down in Riverton, I see them all the time here. I didn't bird much this weekend, but always see kestrels. Thanks for doing this... this was one of my starter birds and I just love them!"

Kay of the Arroyo Colorado RiverBlog said: "We probably won't have kestrels back in S. Texas for a couple of weeks at least. They are great birds!"

Update:  Scott Ross from Montana shares:

On September 3, we drove a 60-mile route through central Valley County in Montana searching for American Kestrels as part of this event.  For the most part, it appears that many of the kestrels have vacated the area. Spots where family groups were routinely seen during the summer yielded no sightings.  Only three kestrels were recorded among the 30 or so species of birds seen and reported to eBird.  One of the highlights of the trip was a Prairie Falcon that was flushed from his roost by a jealous Northern Harrier, giving us good looks at the falcon's "dirty armpits" for a good positive ID.  See a map of the kestrels and Prairie Falcon.

If you have more stories, photos, or videos about your Kestrel Count experience, please don't hesitate to send them my way to share.