The second bird, like the first one recorded for this year, is a female.
The Green Balkans team, part of project "Life for lesser kestrel" LIFE19 NAT/BG/001017, implemented with the financial support of the LIFE programme of the EU, figured out who the new guest was by the ring with which she was marked.
We found out it was DS - a lesser kestrel hatched in the very same colony in 2017. Two years in a row now the bird returns after migration almost at the same time - in 2022 it was first observed on February 16th, and this year - on the 15th.
This was no surprise to the project team, who had noticed that over the years many lesser kestrels would return to the colony on nearly the same date every year.
In 2022, DS was observed as many as 103 times by our team, and it was last registered in the colony on July 26th.
In 2023, the main character of our story is one of the oldest birds in the colony - 7 years old!
We will be watching the life of DS with interest this year as well. We hope that like in previous years she will be able to create a family and rear a new generation.
