American Kestrel Partnership

Our Social Media Guy™ took a walk on the "Kestrel" Trail this weekend. There were no kestrels. He'd like to speak to the manager.

Photo of a disappointing lack of kestrels by Matthew Danihel

Another participation record set!! As of 28 November, we've now received 2023 breeding season data from 1,684 nest cavities, the most cavities ever monitored by AKP partners in a single season in our 12-year history! We've already broken the single-season record for the most partners submitting data (210 and counting!), leaving one major participation record to go: we're still about 300 submitted observations short of last year's mark. Anyone still have unsubmitted data?

BG photo by Banook Rodarte

Lizard ₐMkₑNuggets™: coming soon to an ₐMkₑDonald's near you.

Photo by David Mullen

Quick, someone tell this kestrel to fly away because if it stays perched here more than seventeen minutes it's gonna get charged $2800 rent plus utilities

Photo of a kestrel overlooking NYC's Central Park by Bill Reeves

This holiday season, do you want to:
1) Wear boring normal people clothes?
OR
2) Deck yourself out in awesome kestrel gear by visiting shop.peregrinefund.org, where you can now get 20% off purchases of $50 or more?

CHOOSE WISELY

Shirt: https://shop.peregrinefund.org/collections/online-apparel/products/akp-t-shirt-two-kestrel-design
Hat: https://shop.peregrinefund.org/collections/online-apparel/products/akp-logo-hat
Visit shop.peregrinefund.org to find more awesome raptor merchandise that supports bird of prey conservation worldwide.

Photo by Curtis Evans

With many of our US partners enjoying a meal of turkey today, let's revisit that time an AKP partner saw a kestrel doing the same—only the second recorded observation of an American Kestrel feeding on carrion! After a neighbor's pet turkey was killed by a stray dog in January 2018, AKP partner and community scientist Michael Griffith observed a female kestrel feeding from the carcass multiple times over the next five days. Griffith and AKP staff published this finding in the June 2019 issue of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology; read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1676/18-101 to learn more!

Photo courtesy of Michael Griffith

Hot off the presses! The fall issue of our newsletter just dropped harder than that ball thing Chris Pratt fumbled at the beginning of "Guardians of the Galaxy." Check it out below to get an update on where our 2023 breeding season stands as we chase down last year's participation records, hear the best kestrel-tastic stories shared by partners from all across the AKP, get acquainted with our new Social Media Gal™, and more!

American Kestrel Partnership Quarterly: Fall 2023 A huge thank you to all of our partners who have gathered and contributed data during the 2023 breeding season. Our high total numbers are great, and we’re equally excited by the wide geographic spread of this year’s data. The more data y’all share, the more complete picture of regional variat...

TFW u work in retail and a customer stops u to ask a question but u r on break

Photo by Stephen Lis

Greetings from the temporary residents of the AKP's southernmost actively monitored box! AKP partner Marcelo Ghibu has been reporting observations from this box, which is mounted on the balcony of his apartment in downtown Santos, Brazil, for two years now.

Photo by Marcelo Ghibu

"You wanted it to be a 𝘬𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘭 box? Tough cookies. Put up a sign next time."

Photo of Northern Flicker nestlings courtesy of Don McCartney

When ur a big Cincinnati Bengals fan but u can't watch on ur own TV because ur talons are too sharp to work the remote properly

Photo of a kestrel fledgling in downtown Cincinnati by Lyndsay Coleman / on Instagram

"Did I remember to put on deodorant this morning...?"

Photo by Banook Rodarte

Our thanks to the South Florida Wildlife Center, who recently hosted The Peregrine Fund's Digital Content Manager Matthew Danihel (aka our Social Media Guy™) for a Zoom presentation on the perplexing mystery of kestrel decline. He discussed why many theorized causes have been discounted as singular causes of the decline and why many researchers are leaning towards a combination of factors instead, as well as some of the current research aiming to zero in on the answer. He is also deeply uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person like this. Check out the recording at the link below:

Wild Lecture Series: Why are American Kestrels declining? Meet Matthew Danihel CPBT-KA, Engagement Coordinator with the American Kestrel Partnership. He will be discussing the decline of the American Kestrel.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! We believe we've found a way to modify our existing spam-blocking technique to handle the new morons that have been posting pimple-popping videos to our page. Place your bets now for who the next cyber-spammers will be! (We'll give you 2:1 odds on crypto-bros of some sort, without really knowing what 2:1 odds means.)

Photo by Stephen Lis

TFW u just wanna relax and preen but the kids are whining that they're hungry even tho u just brought home a bunch of crickets like 20 minutes ago

Photo by Kirstin Chapman

We're excited to report that as of 30 October, our awesome partners have submitted data from boxes in Panama, Brazil, 37 US states, and six Canadian provinces and territories; these latter two figures match our record highs in the 12-year history of the AKP! That said, we most recently received 2022 data from British Columbia, Utah, and Kansas and 2021 data from Mississippi and Maine, but all five regions are currently unrepresented in our 2023 dataset. We're also seeing a few additional box programs in Ontario, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Illinois that submitted 2022 data, but minimal or no data from 2023. Every observation submitted is a step forward for kestrel conservation, so if you have data you haven't yet submitted, we hope to hear from you soon!

BG Photo by Matthew Danihel
Map produced with mapchart.net

"OK, y'all. Near left dragonfly double-talon, 34 fullback go, shallow cross Z-slant alpha, on two. Ready, break."
"... Elena, that was hot nonsense."
"OMAHA OMAHA."

Photo by Banook Rodarte

If you've contacted the AKP lately, you might have seen a new signature in our reply: Jessica Schlarbaum. If that name sounds familiar, that might be because her master's research was featured in our Spring 2018 newsletter (see link below)! Jessica—who will henceforth be known as Social Media Gal™—will be helping our Social Media Guy™ respond to emails, Facebook comments & messages, and other communications.

https://mailchi.mp/peregrinefund/akp-quarterly-spring-2018

Photo courtesy of Jessica Schlarbaum

In case anyone's curious, yes, the t-shirt scammers are still hitting us every week or two, as well as some new idiots posting links to what appear to be pimple-popping videos (which... why?) that we're still figuring out how to effectively block. If only these [expletive]s applied their time and energy to conservation...

EDIT: Both the pimple-popping people and the t-shirt scammers have now posted on this post🤦

Photos by Banook Rodarte (L) and Kirstin Chapman (R)

When u wanna go trick-or-treating but Spirit Halloween won't let u in so u just flip out ur alulae like Superman's cape and call it a day

Photo (and caption paraphrased from an idea) by Banook Rodarte

DID YOU KNOW? Kestrels, and many other birds, sometimes wipe their beaks along branches, rocks, or other objects. Known as "feaking," this behavior is believed to clean the beak after eating, as well as help maintain the beak's proper shape. Pretty feaking cool if you ask us hahaha... ha... ₕₐ...

OK we're ashamed of that one.

Photo by Jim Shane

LEFT: How birds perch when you're trying to see if they have leg bands.
RIGHT: How birds perch when you're NOT trying to see if they have leg bands.

*sighs in biologist*

Photo by Stephen Lis

"I'm a little kestrel-crazy and all my loved ones know it," laughs Jessica Schlarbaum, who has joined our team to help respond to emails and other communications (and will henceforth be known as Social Media Gal™). "I worked with the AKP to establish a kestrel nest box program in the Central Valley of CA in 2018 for my M.S. thesis at UC Davis. I've trained five ambassador American Kestrels over the years for education programs. I have an American Kestrel tattoo, too many kestrel t-shirts, and artwork of kestrels literally all over my house."

Yeah... she's gonna fit in great.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Schlarbaum

We're beaming over here at AKP HQ: two major data collection milestones were hit over the weekend. First, 200 partners have now submitted data from 2023, the first time we've EVER hit that mark! We also passed 7,000 observations submitted for just the second time, leaving us just ~800 observations away from breaking the record y'all set last year. A huge thank you to ALL of our partners for your contributions to kestrel conservation!!

Map produced using Google Maps

Planning to install a new box or 34 (yes, we counted) for next season? Now's the time! Installing boxes during the non-breeding season, which runs from October to January in most of North America, gives you the best chance to attract a kestrel pair in your new box's first year. Learn more about where and how to install a kestrel box at https://kestrel.peregrinefund.org/nest-monitoring

Photo by Steve Meinel

It's been a great year for data entry, but we're still counting at least six nest box programs that have submitted data for several years running, but have submitted minimal or no data from 2023 :( Get that data in, y'all! Pretty please?

Photo by Kirstin Chapman

Introducing... SOCIAL MEDIA GAL™! We're adding a second member to our outreach team to help respond to emails and other communications. Jessica Schlarbaum is the new Public Information Officer for our parent organization The Peregrine Fund, but she's no stranger to kestrels or the AKP: she monitored 76 kestrel boxes in the Central Valley in California for her graduate thesis in 2018–2019! Stay tuned for more on our new addition.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Schlarbaum

"Nothin' to see here, mice, I'm just a li'l ol' Mourning Dove, yes sirree..."

Photo by Matthew Danihel

TFW the barista says they're out of low-fat soymilk for ur caramel apple pumpkin spice double mocha half caff floofacino

Photo by Jim Shane

Photoshop recently added a new Generative Fill tool that uses AI to generate images (or parts of images) based solely on text prompts. So we took it out for a spin with the prompt "American Kestrel landing on a branch." Seeing the results... let's just say our contributing photographers aren't out of a job yet.

AI-generated "photo" produced with Adobe Photoshop's Generative Fill tool

Step 1: P**p all over solar panel that's powering school zone sign.
Step 2: Sign can no longer recharge quickly enough. Battery dies. Sign stops working. Chaos ensues.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: PROFIT

Photo by Tami Gingrich

More excitement here at AKP HQ: with a little under two months left in the calendar year, our 2023 breeding season is already our second-biggest ever in terms of the number of observations submitted. Got any more you haven't reported yet? Log on now at kestrel.peregrinefund.org and git 'er done!

BG photo by Matthew Danihel

TFW u tried to be cool by pounding four Red Bulls with the boys but now the grasshoppers are 30 feet tall and doing the Macarena

Photo by Bobbie Moller

We've broken our first record of the year here at the AKP! As of 2 October, 197 partners have now submitted data from the 2023 breeding season. This breaks our previous record of 194, originally set in 2021 and equaled last year. Thank you one and all! Now the big question—will we get to 200?!

BG photo by Qamar Cowger

Mondays suck. Here's hoping this kestrel makes this one suck a little less.

Photo by Carlos Suárez

No funny caption. Just pure unadulterated handsomeness.

Photo by Evan Beuchley

Congratulations to our partners at Madison Audubon for another awesome year! Their team reports numerous record highs for their project in 2023, including number of boxes monitored (228), boxes occupied (78), eggs (377), nestlings banded (297), adults banded (59), and recaptures of banded adults (21). A huge thank you to their staff and volunteers for all your contributions to the AKP—and of course, to ALL of our partners for the same!

Photo courtesy of Joanie Lavigne

Chickens: *can run around without heads*
This kestrel: "Amateurs."

Photo by Banook Rodarte

Scientists: You can't hear pictures.
Us:

(Yeah, we know we just used this caption, but if there's a more fitting one we can't think of it.)

Photo by Michele Stanford

If(movement.seen=N) OR (object.edible=N)
> (wait.time+1)->wait.time
If (wait.time=20)
> Goto NEXT PERCH
If(movement.seen=Y) AND (object.edible=Y)
> Goto LUNCH TIME MMMMMMM

Photo by Preston Graham Photography