AGRICULTURE EDUCATION & OUTREACH

In March, Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences partnered with Hawk Mountain to offer a free educator workshop for agriculture teachers across Pennsylvania. The workshop introduced participants to the Sanctuary’s Farmland Raptor Program and free standardized Kestrel Webcam Curriculum and featured live bird presentations and kestrel nest box demos. The workshop also provided insights into Hawk Mountain’s American kestrel trapping and tracking techniques in the field, with a visit to an active kestrel territory site to search for transmitter birds using radio telemetry.

Hawk Mountain is paving the way for human-vulture coexistence in the face of black vulture range expansion and unprecedented vulture population growth. Biologist-Naturalist Bracken Brown presented an inaugural outreach talk hosted by the Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association in January. The talk served to create a direct link between the raptor researchers at Hawk Mountain and local farmers of the surrounding rural communities to educate and address problems with human-vulture interactions.

Peter Bennett receives Warden Award

Hawk Mountain presented the Sanctuary’s highest honor, the Warden Award, to long-time Board Member Peter Bennett in November. This prestigious award is presented to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the Sanctuary and its mission. Peter has served on the board without interruption since 2003, including 12 years as treasurer, and has provided tremendous support and commitment to the financial health of Hawk Mountain.

On a cold day in mid-January, vultures along the Kittatinny ridge have long-since selected their wintering territory. For the first time in 10 years, we began our wintering vulture survey journey in the burning town of Centralia. Hawk Mountain Biologist-Naturalist Bracken Brown maneuvered the Sanctuary’s Toyota RAV4 next to an abandoned house that was so overgrown with weeds they licked the porch awning. Then we drove, taking Route 61 toward the river city of Sunbury.

The first leg of the survey route passed through some old mining towns, true to the heart of the Appalachian countryside experience. We scanned the skies on both sides of the vehicle, driving slightly below the speed limit and angering midday travelers. We could only hope they noticed our Hawk Mountain emblem and chalked us up to crazy birders, nothing personal. We didn’t see our first vultures until we were almost 50 miles into the survey, on the other side of the Susquehanna River. The vultures weren’t interested in abandoned mining towns.

They were flying, not far from the road, which contoured the shape of the river. Three large black birds with V-shaped silhouettes and silver flight feathers were circling, rocking on the frigid breeze above a depleted corn field. I yelled out, “three turkey vultures, five meters up and about 20 meters out,” and Bracken nodded his approval. As the designated scribe for the day, I wrote my findings in a worn composition notebook.

We know that these individuals are either year-round residents or birds from further north who are avoiding resource scarcity in wintery ecosystems. About one half of the turkey vultures in southeastern Pennsylvania are migrants. Black vultures aren’t known to migrate but can move to other nearby areas if food become scarce. On that day, we counted every individual we could see from our Appalachian Ridgebased route as we traveled down into Maryland. From the vulture’s perspective, we travel in a vehicle just like any other they see. But inside, we have binoculars and notes, recording their presence in a ritual Hawk Mountain Sanctuary has been perpetuating for almost 20 years. Our investment in this long-term study stems from a cautionary tale that has taught us to value species while they are still common.

A fierce protection and knowledge of the value of vultures are virtues that perhaps begin in our DNA. Even our early human ancestors, living just above the fertile crescent in what is now Anatolia, Turkey, 60,000 years ago, had veneration for the scavengers that visited their loved ones after death. Vultures have been steeped in human culture all over the world. Even in Mexico, ancestral dances are still carried out today to celebrate vulture-like birds migrating by the masses through the River of Raptors, Veracruz. A modern flame of appreciation for vultures has been reignited in recent decades due to mass vulture die-offs in Europe, India, and Africa. In Asia, this was primarily owed to the use of a popular veterinary drug, diclofenac. In Africa and Europe, a mosaic of conservation issues contributes to their continued decline, such as habitat loss, human conflict, and electrocution.

Since then, the world has turned its attention to how dependent humans are on vultures. OldWorld vulture species still face rapid declines and have been listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Critically Endangered. Loss of these utilitarian creatures has cost governments billions of dollars in sanitation measures and has even resulted in financial losses due to the rapid spread of diseases such as rabies. Efforts to restore vulture populations in Africa, India, and Eastern Europe are still well underway, and some of these inspiring projects have been spearheaded by Hawk Mountain Sanctuary collaborators and former trainees.

Meanwhile, in North and South America, vulture populations have been climbing at an unprecedented rate since the ban of another dangerous chemical –DDT. Humans have been forced to adapt to the influx of vultures,

Can You Tell the Difference?

Black vultures, (Coragyps atratus), also known as zopilotes throughout Mexico, were a predominantly South American and southern North American species that became the most numerous vulture species in the Western Hemisphere. They arrived in eastern Pennsylvania in the 1980s and continued northward through New England and into Canada. Despite their range expansion, they are a nonmigratory species unlike their turkey vulture cousins. Monitoring their population along the Kittatinny Ridge is especially important to assist policy makers with decisions surrounding humanvulture conflict.

Data collected over the years of Hawk Mountain’s long-term road survey study have supported CBC results, showing population increases for both species and the continued colonization of the Northeast by black vultures. We also know, based on the catastrophic declines observed on other continents, that the presence of vultures in North and South America is precious.

The turkey vulture’s Latin name, Cathartes aura, aptly means “golden purifier.” The ecosystem services they provide span from Saskatchewan, Canada, to the tip of Argentina and are certainly as valuable as gold. In fact, each vulture is almost worth its weight in gold. A prepandemic study from the IUCN estimated that each individual vulture’s scavenging services were worth at least $10,200—a price-tag that has likely increased exponentially since then. New World vultures have been providing valuable ecosystem services right beneath our noses for tens of thousands of years, even in the winter. As a result, vultures are valued accordingly by the federal government. Protection of vultures under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) states that the taking of a migratory bird shall be subject to fines of up to $5,000 and six months of imprisonment. Though Bracken and I were a peculiar team of prospectors, the search for these cathartic and expensive birds is well founded.

Not only is the government valuing vultures, but so is Hawk Mountain. The Sanctuary’s research team began equipping turkey vultures with satellite transmitters in 2003 to learn more about their movements locally and across continents. Each transmitter cost a hefty $4,000, just over the average amount of money Americans spent on their engagement rings in 2020. Four years later, black vultures started to receive Hawk Mountain transmitters as well. We even have a transmittered black vulture that we continue to track named Versace, a fitting homage to her luxurious status and designer “backpack.” Now, in 2023, Hawk Mountain has transmitters on two more black vultures in Pennsylvania and one in Connecticut. We have more than three times that number of transmitters on turkey vultures in western North America. With so much money up in the air, the comprehensive monitoring of vulture populations in North and South America is worth our time.

Hawk Mountain’s vulture road surveys don’t stop with the Kittatinny Ridge. Collaborative efforts have expanded all the way down to the furthest extents of the New World vulture range in southernmost Chile and the Falkland Islands, and northernmost in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, Canada. The dedication to vulture road surveys surpasses both time and space, as a multitude of international trainees—former, current, and future—have come forward to contribute to this expansive study over the years. As of winter 2023, the study encompasses 23 sites, each with five to nine routes.

This winter, Bracken traveled to meet Diego Gallego, spring 2022 trainee alumnus, to complete vulture survey routes in Uruguay. Bracken also worked to coordinate with Luis Saavedra, a hawkwatch collaborator who will take on the northwest and northeast Venezuela survey routes. We’ve seen through the dedication of these collaborators and others that the passion for monitoring and protecting vultures also surpasses political borders and even unrest.

Hawk Mountain staff members MT Grob and Rebecca McCabe also contributed to this year’s vulture surveys. Summer vulture surveys are the connective tissue for this vast effort, helping to gather an even clearer picture of how vultures move between seasons. With a long-term comparison of New World vulture wintering and breeding grounds, Hawk Mountain scientists can better determine population trends and movement. In total, approximately 20 collaborators, staff members, and trainees have contributed to the expansive Hawk Mountain vulture surveys. The value of this long-term study will only increase with time, providing us with robust monitoring data that will be used to inform policy and spread the word about the value of vultures.

The world has turned their attention to New World vultures, asking: what we will do with our riches? Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is answering the call, spreading the word about the value of vultures, one road survey at a time.

If you’re interested in investing in vultures too, for the fraction of the cost of an engagement ring, you can sponsor a vulture! Please go to hawkmountain.org/give/ adopt-a-vulture to learn more about our Adopt a Vulture program.