The university is supporting a NABU project to protect kestrels with nesting boxes at lofty heights. Three young birds are currently growing up on the Wechloy campus.
The scientists in the NeSSy research building at the University of Oldenburg on Küpkersweg currently have some unusual housemates: Three young kestrels are living in a nesting box on the façade of the building. Dr Johannes Bartner from the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) Oldenburger Land installed the nesting aid at the highest point of the building at a height of 14 metres at the beginning of the year with the support of the university's building management. Bartner installed another nesting box on the roof of building A6 on the Haarentor campus. However, this nesting aid, which is around 25 metres high, remained empty this year.
The university is thus supporting the kestrel project of NABU Oldenburger Land. Bartner launched the project a few years ago in order to stabilise the declining population of the small birds of prey. Kestrels feel at home in open areas and normally breed in cliff faces, but also like to use niches on tall buildings such as church towers to raise their young. Bartner has already installed around 200 nesting boxes in Oldenburg and the surrounding area. The OLB-Treuhandstiftung Weser-Ems, represented by Dr Klaus-Ferdinand Edeling, supported the installation of the nesting boxes at the university financially.
