Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we care about all wildlife, at home and abroad. This International Vulture Awareness Day we have a special day of Vulture themed activities and demonstrations planned, and hope to do some fundraising for a special cause at the same time.
We hope that all of our visitors love Vultures as much as we do, especially if they’ve enjoyed the antics of Jack and Rose our pair of Hooded Vultures and Ruby our Rüppells Griffon Vulture in our afternoon displays or marvelled at Rocky our Turkey Vulture as he sits with his wings spread. However, in their home countries, they’re not doing so well, thanks to people!
A tagged Hooded Vulture surveying the scene at Kartong Bird Observatory.
Our Education Officer Susan was fortunate to visit Gambia in 2020 before starting at the Owl Sanctuary and spent some time at Kartong Bird Observatory, which is in the south of the country. They conduct a variety of surveys to monitor all sorts of birds, including many migrants to the UK, but she was particularly excited to see so many Raptors in the area. During our time there, they successfully caught and ringed under licence several Hooded Vultures to contribute towards the long term monitoring of the local population.
A Hooded Vulture is tagged while school children watch.
For International Vulture Awareness Day this year, Susan decided to run a fundraiser for Kartong Bird Observatory to continue their work with Hooded Vultures. The rings and tags used cost money, as does the equipment used to catch them, or sight them in the field. With support from the rest of the team, they hope to be able to contribute towards purchasing optical equipment for the Kartong field team.
Kartong Bird Observatory not only helps monitor the birds, but provides employment and training to individuals within the local community who wish to learn more about their work. They also help to educate the next generation by inviting them to watch and encouraging them to report any sightings of tagged birds.
Whilst other collections will be running fundraisers for other very worthy organisations around the world, we hope that by supporting a small scale organisation will allow us to share the stories with our visitors and followers of vulture monitoring on the ground and really see our funds make a difference.
On the day (Sat 3rd September) there will be plenty of opportunities for visitors to learn more about these amazing birds. There will be special talks and demonstrations taking place throughout the day, and our Hooded Vultures will take to the skies at 1pm for their daily flights in our display.
In addition to raising awareness about Vultures, throughout September visitors and followers online will have the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win some super special vulture items!
These include:
Meet and greet with Jack and Rose
Felted Hooded Vulture, created by our falconer Dolly
Ruby keyring, created by our trainee Izzy
Rocky keyring, created by our trainee Izzy
Jack keyring, created by our trainee Izzy
Rose keyring, created by our trainee Izzy
Original Art created by Jack and Rose
Jack and Rose with their mini-Vulture, created by falconer Dolly.
Pom-pom keyrings inspired by our four Vultures, created by trainee falconer Izzy.
We’re asking for £2 per entry into this prize draw, which will be drawn on Friday 30th September to give everyone an opportunity to donate to this important cause. If you’d like to take part, you can pay via PayPal to owleducationsuffolk @ gmail.com, but please include your name and contact details, and select paying friends and family so that the full amount goes to the Vultures.