STROUDSBURG, Pa. — Six Kestrel Falcons were released at Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Stroud Township.
The birds were orphaned and being raised by Kathy Uhler at Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center.
"We have raised them and gotten them to the point where they are ready to be released. Finding a really good habitat where there aren't already Kestrels can be challenging. Kestrels are not doing really well right now environmentally in terms of their population. This is a great way to seed a new population into a habitat that is absolutely perfect for them," said Uhler.
Kestrels are the smallest falcon in the United States.
In order to keep track of the birds, each one was banded before being released.
"The purpose of bird banding is that it's the most effective way to mark a bird as an individual for the rest of its life. We can now know and track those birds. They are migratory so if these birds are encountered at any raptor stations there will be a record of where it was released," said Darryl Speicher, Pocono Avian Research Center.
The Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge is open to the public and if you're lucky enough, you might catch a release.
"We were curious. My friend said, are they releasing animals and I said I don't think so but the ranger came over and gave an explanation as to what was going on, which was really helpful, and then we witnessed four others be released," said Teri Baustien, Stroudsburg.
Jared Green works for the refuge; he said this will be a great home for the kestrels.
"There's lots of great habitat out here for the injured wildlife and this is a great place to release them to their new home. Kestrels like things like insects and small mammals and there's plenty of that here in the former fairways of the golf course that are now meadows," said Jared Green, Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
The rehabilitation center still has two more kestrels that will be released at a later date.