At Fair Meadows Sanctuary, one fact has been made abundantly clear: there is keen competition for nesting sites, both in artificial structures and in tree cavities.
Photo by Gary Shackelford
A summer on the prairie (2025)
American Kestrel: 2025 nest box and banding report
In spring and summer, over a hundred volunteers give their time, energy, gas money, and hearts to American Kestrels. Why? Because this species is beautiful, fierce, and in decline; and the focal point of our citizen science program the Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring & Banding Program (KNB for short). Each year, hundreds of kestrel chicks fledge from the boxes these volunteers steward, and those chicks and some of the adults are banded for research. And each year, we try to get creative about how we can continue to make it easier for kestrels to successfully raise their young in southern Wisconsin.
Photo by Kaitlin Svabek/SoWBA
