North American Buffalo Range

06/09/2026

New video of kestrel chick banding and new camera trap wildlife survey pics available on the official website: www.buffalorrange.org

Here's a teaser:

06/08/2026

NORTH AMERICAN BUFFALO RANGE - KESTREL PROJECT

Chick banding for 2026 is complete! Almost.

Over the weekend, we met up with Jennifer Redmond, permitted ba**er with Colorado Avian Research and Rehab Institute (CARRI), to band the five chicks in Kestrel Box #001.

Our monitoring camera for Box 002, which is a few hundred yards to the east of Box 001, went down before the nesting season this year so we referred to it as our “Mystery Box.” We got lucky when we checked it because we surprised a young adult female in the box and were able to capture her and band her — the first time we’ve banded an adult on this project!! She is incubating three eggs in Box 002 so we will likely be back to band those chicks when the time is right. We replaced the camera watching Box 002 so we should be able to use visitation behavior to predict the hatching day within +/- one day. We’ve developed pretty good methods of using exterior camera data to predict lay dates and hatching dates.

Stay tuned and check out the website for updated videos later today!

www.buffalorange.org

06/02/2026

We have chicks!

Support our project: www.buffalorange.org
https://youtu.be/oPuj0lF8jzc

The first chicks have arrived at Kestrel Box #001! Although clumsy ...

05/13/2026

Changing of the Guard! www.buffalorange.org

I love the way the female wriggles down onto the five eggs so they are all snuggled into her feathers.
https://youtu.be/EjcrbHXp-wI

Visit the North American Buffalo Range website at www.buffalorange.org and support our cause.My favorite part is when the mother comes in and wiggles herself...

05/03/2026

www.buffalorange.org

Egg #5 laid on April 30th in the afternoon!

Egg #4 - April 28th
Egg #3 - April 27th
Egg #2 - April 25
Egg #1 - April 22

Mother Kestrel is on the eggs solidly now throughout the day and night so we think she's committed to incubating. The first chick should hatch in about a month. Stay tuned for video of the magical event and updates on any action during the incubation process. The male will start feeding the female regularly once she commits to inclubation.

05/02/2026

We have a real shot at change, but it won't happen if we just scroll and "care" from the couch.

Look at this photo. This is what "unlimited target shooting" on our public lands looks like. Prairie dogs exploded for sport, carcasses left to rot, lead poisoning the land and the wildlife that depends on it. Outfitters brag about shooting over 1,100 in a single day. They call it fun. We call it colony collapse.

Prairie dogs aren't pests: they're keystone species. They engineer the prairie, aerate the soil, boost plant diversity, and support over 120 other species: burrowing owls, swift foxes, ferrets, hawks, and more. Less than 2% of their historic habitat remains in the West. When we wipe out the biggest, healthiest colonies, we don't just lose prairie dogs. We lose the entire living prairie.

Dedicated advocates with Prairie Protection and Grasslands Colorado have been exposing this atrocity. Read Grasslands Colorado's case study here:

https://grasslandscolorado.org/sport-shooting-or-colony-collapse/

Now there's real momentum: A citizen's petition has been filed with the CPW Commission to END all prairie dog killing on public lands in Colorado. This is one of the biggest potential rule changes for prairie dog protection in our state's history.
Link to the petition:
https://cpw.widen.net/s/cl9xslrhql/prairie-dogs_website

Here's the hard truth I've been wrestling with: So many of you message me saying you love prairie dogs. You share posts, you get angry at the photos. But when it's time to actually show up, to submit comments, contact commissioners, join the action group, and push when this goes before the Commission, only a small handful do the work.

I get it. Life is busy. But this is our public land. These are our prairies. And this is our moment.

If you truly want these protections to pass, devote some energy now. Don't sit this one out.

Please do the following:

1. Read the petition
2. Join our action group here: https://prairieprotectioncolorado.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/action-email-signups
3. Be ready to contact the CPW Commission when this goes before them and to SHOW UP at the meeting: we’ll send you simple scripts and exact deadlines

Change doesn't happen because enough people "care" online. It happens because enough people decide to do something together.

If you want to see prairie dogs protected instead of used for target practice, this is your chance to help make it real. Who's with us?

04/28/2026

Egg #2 - Laid on Saturday (4/25)
Egg #3 - Laid on Monday (4/27)
Egg #4 - Laid on Tuesday (4/28)

Hatching should occur about 30 days after the female starts incubating. Stay tuned.

For more information about our kestrel nest project, visit www.buffalorange.org

04/23/2026

We have our first egg of 2026! We know from the video that it was laid at 10:50 am MST on April 22nd.

04/15/2026

Some recent updates to the website include the earliest video from the 2026 kestrel nest box and a recent video from the artificial den. Click below to check it out.

A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of prairie environments.

04/10/2026

Really looking forward to the premiere of this documentary!

📣 Very excited to have been a part of the upcoming PBS SoCal documentary, Coyote Crossing, premiering April 20 at 7pm on PBS SoCal and the PBS TV app! is already happening. Join us on a rich journey describing coyote relationships with people from past to present. 🐾 👣 T...