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Kevin is a graduate student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he's currently completing his thesis on barn owl foraging behavior in vineyard habitat. Before starting graduate school, he spent his Fall seasons banding migratory owls at Lucky Peak and Hawk Ridge, as well as songbirds at the Palomarin Field Station. When he wasn't mist-netting, he was conducting occupancy and reproduction surveys for Spotted Owls in the Sierra's and Northern California. After completing graduate school, Kevin hopes to work for a nonprofit to contribute to wildlife and habitat conservation efforts through applied research and community outreach. When he’s not busy owling, Kevin enjoys spending time in the intertidal zones admiring Black Oystercatchers.

This presentation highlights the use of high-resolution GPS tracking in combination with accelerometry to classify movement data from American Barn Owls (Tyto furcata). Participants will learn how biologist track this nocturnal raptor to identify hunting locations and investigate how habitat composition within an agricultural ecosystem influence hunting behavior. As an important provider of ecosystem services, Barn Owls play a potential role in integrated pest management. This research advances our understanding of how agricultural landscapes may drive Barn Owl hunting activity and highlights the species’ contribution to sustainable pest management.