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Exciting Changes for the American Kestrel Partnership!
Community Science Program Merges With Cornell Lab of Ornithology's NestWatch

In December 2023, we announced that some exciting changes to our data entry and
management system were on the way. After a busy few months of work, we’re
finally ready to announce the details. Short version: as of March 2023, data
entry and management for the American Kestrel Partnership (AKP) now takes place
through Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch!


WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?

It has long been a goal for our team to improve the process of data entry for
our partners, which has historically relied on observation-by-observation entry
through our increasingly dated website. The AKP website was built over a decade
ago, and in the last few years, the site began to creak with age, as well as
under the strain of the record project participation we’ve had recently (a very
good problem to have—thanks everyone!).

Meanwhile, Cornell Lab of Ornithology is likely well known to many of our
partners as one of the world leaders in bird conservation and research. They are
also one of the preeminent figures in conservation-related community science
programs, running such well-established projects as the immensely popular eBird
(used by birdwatchers to record their sightings), Project FeederWatch (where
participants monitor overwintering birds at bird feeders), and NestWatch (where
participants monitor bird nests or nest boxes for activity). Data from these
programs is then made available to researchers, facilitating range-wide
analysis.

If that last one sounds a lot like the AKP’s community science program to you,
you’re right. In the past, the AKP and NestWatch unintentionally but unavoidably
competed for kestrel box monitors and their data. We have always strived to
conduct the best science possible, and raptor conservation is best accomplished
as a collaborative effort. Therefore, merging our kestrel nest box monitoring
program into NestWatch’s larger bird nest monitoring program seemed an elegant
solution to both of our teams. This has streamlined data accessibility for
researchers, as well as provided our partners with an established data
management system backed by one of the world leaders in community science.

And so, in effect, NestWatch has taken over the AKP’s community science program.
NestWatch is now responsible for hosting data entry and management, promoting
project participation, and providing troubleshooting to partners who encounter
problems with their systems.




WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

In mid-February 2024, a survey was sent to all partners to collect AKP usernames
and Cornell Lab usernames from partners to facilitate data transfer between
these two accounts. This survey was closed on 26 February 2024, and AKP and
NestWatch staff used the results to transfer data from the AKP accounts of all
survey respondents to their Cornell Lab accounts. If you did not fill out the
survey, your data was still be transferred from the AKP database to the
NestWatch database, but will be inaccessible to you until you create a Cornell
Lab account and contact the NestWatch team to get your data moved onto it
manually. Be aware that staff time is needed to move data and is currently in
short supply due to the ongoing transition, so these requests will not be
immediately fulfilled. We ask that partners who did not fill out the survey
please contact us for a proper data transfer rather than just re-entering their
data in NestWatch! In addition to being unnecessary work for you, it will also
create duplicate data in the system, affecting the accuracy of future data
analysis.

Please note: you may wish to create a separate account from your personal
account (e.g., the one you use for personal eBirding, Bird Academy courses,
etc.) if you anticipate that others may one day need to access your kestrel data
(e.g., you participate as part of your job, and others may take over the account
in the future).




FROM A PARTNER’S PERSPECTIVE, WHAT’S CHANGED?

From a big-picture perspective—very little! You’ll still monitor your boxes and
submit your observations to a centralized database; you’ll just now be using
NestWatch tools and the NestWatch database rather than the AKP website and
database. As mentioned above, all of your old data will be migrated to the
NestWatch database, and you will be able to manage it there in the same manner
as the future data you enter via NestWatch tools. Your data will then be used by
scientists to answer research questions on a continent-wide scale, the same as
ever.

There are, however, a few differences in what data is collected by NestWatch
compared to the AKP’s current protocol. Certain data points that are required or
optional for the AKP are not collected by NestWatch, and vice versa. The
NestWatch team has put together a tremendous FAQ that outlines all these
differences. We recommend all of our partners read it through at their
convenience, as it’s a fantastic resource for folks who haven’t participated in
NestWatch before to orient themselves on the platform.

Perhaps the biggest change for our partners is that in addition to entering data
through a website form, partners will now have access to two additional data
entry methods that have long been on our wishlist: a smartphone app and bulk
upload! The NestWatch app is available for free for both iOS and Android
devices; resources for how to use the app can be found here. You can now enter
all of your observation data right in the field, even if you don’t have cell
service—observations can be stored on your phone and uploaded when you’re back
in service.

Meanwhile, bulk upload will be available for partners submitting more than 100
nests. Nests can be combined across years and locations—e.g., one year of data
from 100 nest boxes, four years of data from 25 boxes, etc.—but note that the
criterion refers to entire nesting attempts rather than individual box
observations. Partners interested in bulk upload can learn more here. Data MUST
be submitted using Nestwatch's spreadsheet template; data sent in another format
cannot be uploaded.

There is one feature of our current system that NestWatch does not have: teams.
This feature is currently used by a small subset of our partners, mainly
community science programs with multiple volunteer box monitors, and allows
monitors to enter their own data while giving team leaders the ability to view
and edit all of their team members’ data and to reassign boxes to new monitors
as necessary. NestWatch does not possess this feature at this time. We welcome
our current team leaders to contact our staff at
kestrelpartnership@peregrinefund.org so we can help determine an alternative
that will meet your team’s needs. If you are a current member of an AKP team,
please contact your team leader for instructions on how you will submit your
data in 2024.


App mockups courtesy of NestWatch; BG photo by Jenn Sinasac


WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE AKP WEBSITE?

“Under the hood,” the AKP website consisted of four different components: the
data entry & management portal, the database itself, the community forum, and
the main website. These first two components moved to NestWatch, which is why
you’re reading this in the first place. Our community forum was intended to
facilitate communication between our partners without requiring our staff to act
as a go-between, but has never seen enough activity to meet this goal. As a
result, we have decided to discontinue this third component as well.

The remaining component is our main website, which contains basic information
about American Kestrels and their decline, instructions for nest monitoring and
data entry, and more. All information pertaining to data entry and management is
made obsolete by our transition to NestWatch, while most of the remaining
information can also be found on the American Kestrel species profile hosted by
the AKP's parent organization, The Peregrine Fund, as well as Cornell Lab of
Ornithology’s pages about American Kestrels. (NestWatch has an American Kestrel
species profile and a separate page with a kestrel nest box blueprint and
installation information [the same plan we recommend!]; there’s also an All
About Birds profile and eBird profile for the species, as well as an extensive
entry on the subscription-based Birds of the World.)

As a result, we have decided to take down the existing AKP website entirely on
or around 30 April 2024. Keep in mind that all of our partners’ box and
observation data have been moved to the NestWatch database and will be available
through their platform; however, partners wishing to retain other information
from the AKP website such as population decline data, community forum posts,
etc., should download this information at their earliest convenience.




WILL YOU STILL SEND OUT A NEWSLETTER?

Since 2014, we’ve used our newsletter to increase partner engagement and to
share news from our community science program and other projects. However, with
the AKP’s community science program soon to be under NestWatch’s purview, we’ve
opted to discontinue the AKP-specific newsletter and split this content into two
other pre-existing newsletters.

News about kestrel box monitoring is now shared in NestWatch's monthly
newsletter; interested partners can sign up to receive the NestWatch newsletter
here. News from the AKP’s other projects has moved to Notes From the Field, the
monthly newsletter released by the AKP’s parent organization, The Peregrine Fund
(and authored by the same team behind the AKP newsletter). Interested partners
can sign up to receive Notes From the Field here.




WHAT ABOUT YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE? YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GUY™ IS HILARIOUS.

For the same reasons we are discontinuing the AKP newsletter, we have made the
difficult decision to discontinue the AKP Facebook page as well. The page will
be deactivated on or around 30 April 2024. Going forward, news regarding kestrel
box monitoring will be shared instead on NestWatch’s Facebook page, while news
from the AKP’s other projects will be shared through The Peregrine Fund’s
Facebook and Instagram pages.

We realize the AKP has gained something of a cult following on Facebook with its
unorthodox style of teaching science using a mix of memes, GIFs, and
oft-humorous photo captions, and we have no intention of abandoning this voice
entirely. Our Social Media Guy™ will live on as a guest poster creating content
for our parent organization, The Peregrine Fund. Follow us on our social media
channels (Facebook / Instagram / YouTube) and let us know if you want to see
more of his content!




OK, WHAT ABOUT ADOPT-A-BOX?

Unlike the newsletter, website, and Facebook page, we will be continuing the
Adopt-a-Box program at least through the 2024 breeding season. For those not in
the know, our Adopt-a-Box program is a collaboration with researchers at Boise
State University (BSU). Since 2015, members of the public have symbolically
“adopted” boxes in the network that our partners at BSU have monitored since
1992. Adopters receive updates on the kestrel families that take up residence in
their adopted boxes, among other perks, and the money from “adoption fees”
supports the AKP and the BSU monitoring program.

Officially, the program will now be run by The Peregrine Fund and Boise State
University (rather than the AKP and BSU), but in effect, very little will
change: adopters will receive the same perks, produced by the same Peregrine
Fund staff members, and the money from adoption fees will support The Peregrine
Fund’s kestrel conservation work and the Boise State University monitoring
program.

The only changes here are to the signup process. With the AKP website—including
the original Adopt-a-Box sign-up page—going offline, we’ve set up a new sign-up
page at peregrinefund.org/adopt-box. As part of this process, we’ve added the
ability to set up a recurring adoption—if you’d like to adopt a box for multiple
years in a row, as many of our adopters do, you’ll no longer have to re-sign up
every year!

Thank you to all of our past, current, and future box adopters for supporting
American Kestrel research and the training of tomorrow’s biologists here in
Idaho’s Treasure Valley. We look forward to continuing to share slices of
kestrel life with you this spring and beyond.


Eggs/nestling photo by Daniel Gélinas; all others courtesy of Boise State
University or by Matthew Danihel


I’M A PHOTOGRAPHER WHO’S CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS TO YOU IN THE PAST. DO YOU STILL
WANT PHOTOS?

Yes! Without the AKP Facebook page, we’ll be sharing fewer kestrel pictures than
before, but The Peregrine Fund’s social media team (i.e., the same people that
run the AKP page) would still love to have any good photos or videos of American
Kestrels—or any other birds of prey—that you’re willing to share. These
photographs can be sent to photoshare@peregrinefund.org. Thank you!


Photos by (L to R) Joanie Lavigne, Seth Vreeman, Kirstin Chapman, and Banook
Rodarte


WHO DO WE CONTACT IF WE STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

That depends on the question. If you have general questions about the transition
itself, please contact our staff at kestrelpartnership@peregrinefund.org. We ask
for our partners’ patience, as we are receiving a considerable number of
communications during this process and may not be able to respond to inquiries
at the pace we would prefer. Your messages are important to us, and we will
respond as soon as we are able.

If you have questions about data entry and management within the NestWatch
system, or any other inquiries specifically about NestWatch, these should be
directed to the NestWatch team here. Like the AKP, NestWatch has a much smaller
team than most would expect, and your patience when awaiting their responses
will be greatly appreciated.




SO WHAT IS THE AKP NOW THAT THE TRANSITION IS COMPLETED?

Simply put, the AKP is still what it always has been: a collective of
professional and community scientists working together to advance kestrel
conservation. All of our work will continue in the future, just under different
umbrellas: our community science program continues on under NestWatch’s purview,
while our parent organization The Peregrine Fund has taken over our partnerships
with Boise State University, the University of North Texas, and other ongoing
and future American Kestrel research projects. The AKP may not be as visible as
a separate entity in the future, but rest assured that we’re still here and
you’re still a vital part of the team.

We recognize this is a sizable change, but it’s an exciting one that will
benefit not only our partners and the NestWatch program, but kestrel
conservation as a whole. Time and again, research has proven the importance of
collaboration in conservation, and we’re confident that this new collaboration
between The Peregrine Fund, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and all of you will be a
major step forward for kestrel conservation everywhere.

Welcome to the future. We’re glad you’re here.



 


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PLAN YOUR VISIT

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5668 West Flying Hawk Lane
Boise, Idaho 83709

Open Tuesday-Sunday from 10am to 5pm, accepting drop-ins and pre-purchased
online tickets 

Closed Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day

Admission
General $12
Senior (over 62) $10
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Free to members and children under age 4


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