Collegio Online

Issue date: 6/26/08 Section: Front Page

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo Pittsburg State University renovators found a group of American kestrels roosting on the high east side of Russ Hall.

A renovation crew found a federally protected surprise earlier this month when they started work on the east side of Russ Hall - a nest of American kestrel falcons.
Frank Atkins, of Atkins Weatherproofing, says the birds, roosting on Pittsburg State's oldest building, might have been history if not for one wildlife-savvy employee.
"Ninety percent of our work is on buildings that are 75 years or older," Atkins said. "You find a lot of gaps in large places high in the air and you'll run into hornets, bats, all kinds of stuff. The normal practice is just to kind of skin them away."
Luckily, Atkins Weatherproofing employee Tim Bradburry, an avid outdoorsman, had a strong hunch that the birds were a protected species.
Atkins soon contacted the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, who put Pittsburg area Wildlife Manager Rob Riggin on the job.
"They offered to send me up in a big boom (hydraulic lift), and I'm not terribly comfortable with heights anyway, but they took me all the way up to the fourth floor to get a look at the nest cavity, and they were definitely kestrels," Riggin said. "These were birds that had hatched and were very near fledging... they were about ready to leave the nest."
As it turned out, Bradburry was right - Riggin says the kestrels, as with many other migratory species, are federally protected.
The crew has had to stay 50 feet away from the nest at all times, which has stalled the renovation process.
"It still is disrupting us," Atkins said. "We actually need to be working on some of the terra-cotta they're residing in that needs to be replaced... we're not supposed to go near them for fear that we'll scare them and they can't fly yet."
But Riggin says the birds - four or five, by his estimate - should all be fledged now, although they might be returning to roost in the crevice. Because of this, Riggin says the Atkins' crew won't face any trouble if they install the new terra-cotta piece and seal off the birds' nest.
These resourceful raptors will just move elsewhere.
"They'll nest in cavities in trees, cliff ledges, things like that, so it's not that critical," Riggin said. "We're not going to require that the university keep a cracked block up there that might allow water to leak into the building."

Continued...

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