Lesson 2 – American Kestrels as Pest Control Allies on the Farm

Presenters: Jeanette Kelly, Beaver Creek Reserve, and Catherine Lindell, Michigan State University

Start Time is 11:00 AM Central Time

Once you RSVP, a Zoom link will arrive in the confirmation email.

Continued Education Credits: We are offering 1 CCA credit from American Society of Agronomy

Upon successfully completing this lesson, participants will be able to:

• Identify suitable nest box habitat for American Kestrels that promotes occupancy while reducing use by nonnative species.
• Explain the significance of nest monitoring.
• Identify two potential benefits to farmers of attracting natural predators to scare and/or consume crop pests.
• Identify one challenge in attracting American Kestrels to farms to aid in pest control.

Speaker Bios:

Jeanette Kelly is the Citizen Science & Education Director at Beaver Creek Reserve in Fall Creek, WI. Her path as a wildlife biologist changed the day she held an American Kestrel, sparking a career in avian conservation and citizen science. She has worked with Kestrels nationwide, from migration studies to habitat improvements through nest boxes. At Beaver Creek, Jeanette oversees a citizen science Kestrel nest box-monitoring project and trains landowners to install and monitor nest boxes on their properties.

Catherine Lindell is a faculty member in the Integrative Biology Dept. at Michigan State University (MSU), having received my Ph.D. from Harvard’s Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Her lab group at Michigan State University (MSU) studies the behavior and ecology of birds and how birds contribute to ecological functioning and ecosystem services and disservices. Their venues for this work have included agricultural and forest restoration systems in North and Central America. They investigate how to make managed landscapes more hospitable for native species that contribute significant ecosystem services and less hospitable to non-native species and those that cause ecosystem disservices. Catherine previously served the department as the Graduate Program Director and Interim Chair. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of Ornithological Applications from 2019-2024.

Header photo: American Kestrel and chick by Feng Yu