Wyndhurst Farm, part of the University of Bristol's Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, is participating in the Hawk and Owl Trust's "Kestrel Highways project", in which nesting boxes are erected alongside various roads.

Earlier this month a team from the Trust visited the nesting box on Wyndhurst Farm and discovered four kestrel chicks, which a licensed fieldworker proceeded to ring and register.

Michael Jones, Farm Manager of Wyndhurst Farm, said: "We are delighted to be taking part in the "Kestrel Highways project" and were thrilled to find chicks in our nesting box. 

"Apparently, ours are the only successful births in the boxes the Trust has put up along the A38 between Bedminster Down and Bridgwater."

The project hopes to establish whether providing nestboxes in suitable feeding habitat will help reverse the falcon's population slump.

The kestrel is an iconic bird for motorists as it hovers above the rough grassland on roadside verges, looking for prey.

It is, however, no longer the most common bird of prey in the UK.  The buzzard is now the most common bird of prey, with kestrels having declined by a fifth between 1994 and 2005.