News Release

March 25, 2002

Hawks Aloft, B&D, PNM Partner To Create Urban Habitat

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NEWS MEDIA CONTACT Susan Sponar Telephone: (505) 241-2768

Albuquerque: Some of New Mexico’s smallest, most charismatic raptors will be offered new homes on Monday, March 25. Four schools in the area will install nesting boxes made by students for the American Kestrel in hopes of drawing mating pairs to their school grounds for the spring breeding season.

The school sites are: Corrales Elementary, Corrales; Carroll Elementary, Bernalillo; Bernalillo Middle School; and Mountain View Elementary. 

The project, created by Hawks Aloft, Inc. has received funding and support from PNM. B & D Industries, an Albuquerque electrical contractor company, has donated time and equipment to hang the nesting boxes to trees and posts at the school properties. It is part of a program to expand breeding habitat for both the Burrowing Owl and American Kestrel. 

The American Kestrel has been the focus of area students since 1999. Hawks Aloft has introduced American Kestrel nesting boxes at six other schools in the Albuquerque area in prior years: Eisenhower Middle School, Foothill Middle School, Garfield Middle School, Harrison Middle School, Jefferson Middle School and Taylor Middle School.

Students at work on the project this year have learned about the kestrel’s habitat requirements, and constructed the nest boxes. Students will monitor the boxes to see how many chicks hatch and monitor survival rates. Their results will be posted on the Internet. 

A video-camera monitoring system in active nests provides photographs in five-minute intervals. The project will run three to five years. 

In a related Hawks Aloft project, underground burrows were created earlier this spring for area Burrowing Owls at one of PNM’s generating stations in Albuquerque. Several small owls are long-term residents of this facility. Hawks Aloft created the new burrows for Burrowing Owls that have been rehabilitated. They will be carefully reintroduced to their native habitat with the help of the new burrows and supportive power plant employees.

Facts About the American Kestrel
The American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America and is seen widely throughout the continent at elevations up to 12,200 feet. They prefer open areas but also nest within forest edges. They use the old nests of other birds such as woodpeckers and also use cliffs and earthen banks for nest sites. Kestrels also share habitats with humans successfully, including highway right-of-ways, electric transmission lines and reclaimed surface mines.

Kestrel nest box programs have helped the American Kestrel overcome the loss of potential nest trees, the spread of agricultural lands and the lack of suitable nest cavities. 

The birds also compete with the American Starling for breeding habitat.

Iowa, Rhode Island, Idaho and Nebraska have effective nest box programs for kestrels. In fact, nest boxes in Iowa occupy nearly every mile along Interstate 35 between the Missouri and Minnesota state lines.

Facts About the Burrowing Owl
The Burrowing Owl is endangered in some states and parts of Canada and "a species of concern" in others, including New Mexico. In New Mexico, they are on the New Mexico Partner in Flight "high priority" list. Habitat destruction, control of burrowing mammals, pesticides, predators and vehicle collisions have impacted the species' population. 

The Burrowing Owl is a small, burrowing, crepuscular bird that inhabits open short grass prairie, treeless plains and deserts with sparse vegetation. They can be found breeding on native prairie, pastures, cropland, fallow fields, road and railroad rights-of-way, cemeteries, golf courses, aircraft fields, vacant lots, fairgrounds and university campuses. In New Mexico, Hawks Aloft is monitoring active nests at Kirtland and Holloman air force bases. 

Burrowing Owls use the nests of other animals including prairie dogs, ground squirrels and badgers to raise their young. The new burrows constructed at the PNM power plant are constructed of hollow concrete block and designed to resemble the burrows of a prairie dog.

Hawks Aloft, Inc. was founded in 1994 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its mission is to conserve indigenous wild birds and their habitats through research and public educations. Its projects take place almost entirely within the state of New Mexico. Hawks Aloft focuses on educational programs and field research. For more information on Hawks Aloft and its programs, go to www.hawksaloft.org

B & D Industries is an Albuquerque-based electrical contracting firm established in 1956. It provides commercial and industrial contracting throughout New Mexico. 

PNM is a combined electric and gas utility serving approximately 1.3 million people in New Mexico. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of PNM Resources, also sells power on the wholesale market in the Western U.S. PNM Resources stock is traded primarily on the NYSE under the symbol PNM. For more information, see the company's web site at www.pnm.com.