Rappahannock County High School students taking the Building Trades and Engineering Technology class have constructed nest boxes for the nonprofit Shenandoah Valley Raptor Study Area (SVRSA) to assist in its efforts to protect kestrels.
“I went into the classroom and gave a general overview of the study area and kestrel research,” wrote Tim Rocke, SVRSA research assistant who visited the class in September. “The students took more time asking questions and listening to answers than the time it took to give my overview.”
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The Rappahannock County High School Building Trades and Engineering Technology class showing off their kestrel boxes.
For the 2025 season, SVRSA needs to replace about two dozen of the 90 nest boxes. Dilapidated nest boxes will be replaced in the winter before the kestrels start nesting in March.
Rocke wrote that when he returned to RCHS a few weeks later, all of the boxes were complete and “exact specifications” were met.
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Lance Morrow holding female (left) and male kestrel (right).
Foothills Forum reporter Bob Hurley took a deep-dive on the decline of kestrels in an August 2022 article — and again in May 2023:
Keeping up with kestrels
It is fast, fierce and flashy, with a plumage of oranges and slate blues for males; reddish-brown hues for females. Chances are you have seen one perched on a fence post or power line, surveying open fields for a meal.
Kestrels revisited: Local landowners provide new homes for the small falcons
The new star of Rappahannock County is the kestrel, the colorful, feisty, falcon featured in this newspaper in August last year.
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