Biodiversity at Aston University

Aston University has seen a lot of redevelopment of its city centre campus over the last few years. Listed below are some of the features which we’ve incorporated into these plans to promote biodiversity:
-    There are a total of five biodiverse roofs on our new student residences.
-    A green wall near our redeveloped sports centre.
-    Inclusion of bird boxes and bat boxes around campus. The biodiverse roof included boxes and features such as deadwood and rubble piles to attract Black Redstarts, which have been spotted on campus before.
-    Planting of fruit trees and wildflowers.

Kestrel
The University has kestrels nesting in the Main Building, in a technician’s study room, for over three decades. A webcam was installed in the nesting place in 2010 enabling staff, students and the public to access a live feed for those wanting to watch the birds. The live feed is available here on the Aston site. Each year the kestrels are ringed for identification purposes to monitor their movements and contribute to conservation research.

As a result of the popularity of Kestrel Cam, the Environment Team now use ‘Kitty the Kestrel’ in its sustainability branding!