Endangered Lappet-faced Vultures are on the brink of losing critical breeding opportunities in Kruger National Park. Breeding territories depend on a handful of key nest trees, yet elephants are destroying these trees at an alarming rate.  Our monitoring has highlighted  just how scarce these nest trees have become.  With so few trees remaining, and the slow breeding cycle of Lappet-faced Vultures, the urgency to act is clear, and we think we might have the solution to protect these trees.

Although Kruger National Park is home to one of the largest remaining populations of Lappet-faced Vultures in southern Africa, we estimate that there are only about 30 nests across the park’s roughly 20,000km² landscape, an area about the size of Wales!

Between 2008 and 2017, elephants toppled roughly a quarter of nest sites (of around 60 nest sites that we monitored). Today, the vultures are mostly confined to an area of about 4,000km² in the park’s central sections, leaving their already fragile breeding population under serious threat and at risk of disappearing from the park.

At the Hawk Conservancy Trust, we are working to protect the few remaining nest trees and understand the elephant behaviour. That’s no easy task; Lappet-faced Vultures are notoriously unpredictable in their breeding habits, often switching trees, skipping breeding, or abandoning nests mid-build. With so few nest trees left and the clock ticking, every tree matters. The aim isn’t to stop elephants from toppling trees entirely, but to steer them away from the precious ones that these vultures depend on.

Lappet-faced Vultures choose surprisingly small trees for their nests, which makes those trees easy targets for elephants to push over. Why elephants seem drawn to these particular trees is still a puzzle. Typically, elephants push trees down to eat from the canopy or exposed roots, but in this case, they often leave the fallen nest trees untouched. Sometimes they will even topple a nest tree when plenty of other trees stand nearby, including toppling nest tree species they wouldn’t usually eat.

To try to solve this complicated problem, this year we are moving to Stage 2 of this project and will implement trial “tree safe installations.”   This is a time-tested local method of placing large, concrete pyramids (pointed rocks, essentially) around the base of key trees. It is a simple, low-maintenance deterrent similar to what has been used for years to protect iconic trees, such as Baobabs, in southern Africa. It has also been used to great effect in reserves neighbouring Kruger National Park to protect mature trees from elephants. We do not know for sure whether the mysterious attraction of Lappet-faced Vulture nests will outweigh the discomfort and effort for elephants to walk over or dig up the concrete pyramids.  We are opting for this low maintenance method rather than using electric fences or anything that might disturb or affect other wildlife.

During Stage 1, we used cameras to monitor current and potential nesting trees, which proved challenging and did not bring the hoped for insights into elephant behaviour.  Several trees were monitored, but the elephants often seemed to know they were being watched, pulling down or obscuring the camera trap ahead of pulling the nest tree down. This, of course, is doubly frustrating – losing another tree but without enhancing our understanding of the problem. The threat posed by elephants is clearly pressing, and we cannot wait to fully understand their behaviour before attempting to reduce the damage. That is why Stage 2 is so urgent and starting now. We must begin protecting the very limited number of remaining nest trees before more are lost.

Installing these tree safe installations will be a pilot, the hopeful success of which, will shape our path into Stage 3, which involves rolling out protection across all the current and potential nesting trees in Kruger.  Secretary Birds also nest in similar trees to Lappet-faced Vultures, which means this project, if successful, could also help in protecting their populations too.

After last year’s incredible fundraising, we have been able to purchase the moulds for creating the concrete pyramids and are pressing ahead with getting some pyramids created now! We are set to use up to 2000 concrete pyramids per tree to protect them, which brings logistical challenges and labour costs to transport and install the bed of pyramids around these trees, deep in the bushveld of Kruger. It is quite the operation, but we are excited to be getting this next stage underway and will require urgent funds to expand this project further.  Please click here if you would like to donate to support this project.

Last week, we said a fond farewell to our 2025 Conservation and Research Intern, Sorcha. Over her five month placement with us, generously funded by the Cameron Bespolka Trust, Sorcha has supported much of our work, including our onsite biodiversity, bird of prey population and small mammal population surveys. Plus, she even supported ringing Kestrel chicks as part of our Raptor Nest Box Project!

“Unfortunately, my time here at the Hawk Conservancy Trust has come to an end. These past five months have been absolutely jam-packed and I’m not sure where to begin, but I will try my best to describe some of the highlights working as the Conservation and Research Intern here at the Trust.

Since starting here in May I have been carrying out on-site biodiversity surveys, and as the weather begins to cool many of these surveys have been wrapping up. Over the summer myself and some of our lovely volunteers carried out 11 nights of moth trapping, split between Reg’s Wildflower Meadow, the Savannah Arena, the Woodland Arena and the Discovery Barn. Over 500 individuals from 290 species were recorded in total. Some of my favourites included the Leopard Moth, the Black Arches and the Chinese Character, as well as some beautiful micro moths like the Ypsolopha scabrella and the Argyresthia goedartella (the little ones don’t usually get nice, easy-to-remember names). The Trust, in particular Reg’s Wildflower Meadow, was brimming with pollinators this year, including butterflies, day flying moths, beetles, hoverflies and bees. 23 species of butterfly and six species of day-flying moth were recorded, including Small Skippers, Small Coppers and always popular, the Hummingbird Hawk-moth. It was also lovely to see the three ponds at the Trust so full of life during aquatic surveys. Some of the most exciting finds were dragonfly larva (resulting in some beautiful adult dragonflies such as Emperors, Southern Hawkers and Broad-bodied Chasers) and newt efts!

One of my favourite tasks has been conducting the early morning bird point counts, it was a real pleasure to walk around the empty Trust with only myself and the birds. The Trust hosts an incredibly diverse array of birds, my most memorable spots included Hobbies, a frequent Sparrowhawk visitor (often followed a mob of angry Swallows) and one special encounter with three Green Woodpeckers in Reg’s Meadow.

Trust Research Assistant, Tanith, very kindly taught me the ropes of small mammal trapping. Together we conducted three rounds of small mammal trapping at the Trust and four rounds at three external sites. Whilst slow to initially take off, the small mammals eventually showed themselves, giving us an insight into how they, and vicariously raptors like kestrels, were fairing this year. It was extremely interesting to see how the sites differed in terms of abundance and diversity, with one site being particularly favoured by Wood Mice (a rather energetic species to work with, to say the least). Across all sites we recorded Short-tailed Voles, Bank Voles, Common Shrews, Pygmy Shrews and Wood Mice. I am extremely grateful to Tanith, not only teaching me all she knows (about small mammals and otherwise), but putting up with me on many early mornings and late evenings whilst we put smelly casters into traps and got excited over small mammal faeces. We also had lots of exciting non-small mammal interactions, including a very close encounter with a young badger and a hunting Goshawk and lots of cool invertebrate findings (both in the traps and around the general sites).

Since the beginning of June, I have been undertaking a small project looking primarily into butterfly and day-flying moth abundance and diversity across Reg’s Wildflower Meadow and three other local wildflower meadows (Broughton Down, Magdalen Hill Down and Bury Hill Meadows). This has allowed me to work on project management skills as well as brush up on some coding skills too.

I have been lucky enough to venture out into the field with Dr Matt Stevens, the British Projects Manager, on a couple of occasions. Under the very watchful eye of Matt, a licensed ringer, I was able to ring my first ever bird, and a Kestrel chick is a pretty special first bird. We also went out to investigate a couple of Barn Owl nest boxes in the area and made a very exciting discovery of a male and female Barn Owl, both seven years old and doing very well. Matt is an absolute wealth of knowledge on these amazing birds (on many birds), I am extremely grateful to have been able to pick his brains and learn so much from him on only a few trips out.

Towards the end of my internship, I have also managed to squeeze in a few raptor transects to monitor raptor densities across the south-east of the UK. This has taken me around the local area and as far as Dungeness, Kent, they are an extremely lovely way to spend a day. I have been lucky enough to see Kestrels, Ravens, Red Kites, Common Buzzards, Goshawks, Sparrowhawks and Marsh Harriers!

I have spent some time during this internship getting to grips with camera traps that will hopefully lay the foundations for some exciting new conservation and research work the Trust will be undertaking in the future. This has involved putting camera traps on roadkill to attempt to monitor raptor’s, particularly scavengers like Red Kites and Common Buzzards, interactions with roadkill and traffic. Roadkill so far has mostly been taken by foxes, and one strong cat, but a capture of a Red Kite scooping up a Common Wood Pigeon from the road was enough to fuel a lot of excitement for the whole day.

I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity, and I have learnt so much from so many people during my time as Conservation and Research Intern at the Trust. I have really enjoyed my time working here, everyone has made it an incredibly welcoming environment, and I couldn’t ask for better people to work with. My biggest thank you goes to Dr Jamie McKaughan, the Conservation and Research Coordinator, who has supported me immensely throughout this internship.

A huge thank you to the Cameron Bespolka Trust. This internship has been a huge stepping stone into a career in conservation and without their support I would not have been here.”

Migration is one of the riskiest times in a bird’s life, and sadly, many migratory species are seeing their numbers drop. One such species is the Egyptian Vulture, the only true migrant among the Old World vultures, and currently listed as Endangered. These remarkable birds come in two populations: one spread across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, and the other in central and south Asia.

Protecting migratory birds is not an easy task. They face a range of threats depending on where they are, be that where they are breeding, where they are spending the winter, or where they travel in between. For the population that moves between Europe, the Middle East and Africa, we have learned a lot about the dangers they face. But for those traveling through central Asia, there is still a huge knowledge gap.

That is why this pioneering project remains so important. Now a few years in, it is filling a crucial knowledge gap, pioneering as the first to track Egyptian Vultures in central Asia, shedding light on their movements and the threats they face. We are proud to be part of this vital work through helping to fund satellite tags, contributing to the analysis and scientific publications, and sharing updates as the project progresses. Our Conservation and Research Coordinator, Dr Jamie McKaughan, had one such opportunity to do this recently at this year’s Global Bird Fair. We caught up with him when he got back:

“It was a real privilege to speak about this project at this year’s Global Bird Fair. Before joining the Hawk Conservancy Trust, the Egyptian Vulture was not a species I knew particularly well. I had never worked with them in the field and have yet to see one in the wild. In fact, since meeting Boe, our Egyptian Vulture at the Trust with her lovely, inquisitive character and becoming involved in the project, they have quickly become a favourite of mine.

Bird Fair was a great opportunity to reflect on just how far the project has come since it began. Although we are a few years into it now, it still feels like the project is breaking new ground with work expanding further in central Asia, beyond where it started in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan was an ideal starting point, as it hosts a known breeding population of Egyptian Vultures and it was also the only country in central Asia with a recently updated National Action Plan for the species. Plus, its location at the crossroads of two major bird migration flyways makes it a key area for understanding routes and risks affecting not only vultures, but many other migratory birds.

Since the project launched in 2021, work has expanded into neighbouring countries like Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, and this year’s field season excitingly, made further steps. Tagging reached new ground with two Egyptian Vultures tagged in Kyrgyzstan this July, while another three were tagged at nest sites in Uzbekistan’s central deserts area. Vlad and the field team were also kept busy conducting congregation counts at dump sites and continuing the search for additional nest locations.

Of course, tracking wildlife in the wild and conservation efforts in general comes with many ups and downs. In the last few months, we have lost signals from several tagged birds. At least one has been confirmed as a fatality, though the cause remains unknown. For the others, we are still hoping they have simply moved into areas with poor signal coverage, but realistically, we are preparing ourselves for the likelihood of more losses. Battery levels were strong when they disappeared, so unfortunately the signs are not particularly encouraging.

Despite these setbacks, they highlight just how important this work is and how incredibly valuable the data we are gathering is. Right now, there are 17 tags transmitting from across our central Asia study area, the majority of which were tagged in Uzbekistan. Early data has already shown that most of the birds we are tracking spend the non-breeding season in India, while others head to the Middle East. Work is already underway on a publication exploring these trends. We will want to tag many more birds to ensure these patterns are accurate and not a result of sampling bias, or the locations we are tagging the birds, or some other factor. Any donations to help us will always be gratefully received!!

Although I have not had the chance (yet!) to join the team in the field, I am really proud to be contributing from afar helping with data analysis, supporting publications, and sharing these stories and project progress with others at events like the Global Bird Fair. It was a great event to speak about the project at, with many like-minded people coming together, it really helped reinvigorate the soul to keep going with trying to make the world a more nature and wildlife-friendly place as much as possible, or at least it certainly did for me! There was a great positive energy and it was great that the Trust were able to have a stall for the full three days of the event, enabling people to come and talk more about not only the Central Asian Vulture Project, but so much more of the work the Trust does, both in the field locally and internationally, but also at the Visitor Centre, spreading the importance of conserving birds of prey and their habitats. I look forward to the next opportunity to speak about this fantastic project and these stunning birds!

Just finally, back on the subject of vultures… Something I learnt from Vlad, which I absolutely love, is that in the Balkans, Egyptian Vultures are seen as a symbol of spring, often being referred to as the ‘Horse of the cuckoo’, where the cuckoos ride in on Egyptian Vultures to bring spring with them. I think that is both a very cool and poetic image, while perhaps also profoundly reflecting what vultures can do – clearing away what once lived to make room for new life, just like spring itself. Hopefully our work can help that continue long into the future.”

This year, for the very first time, we have had a live stream into one of the Kestrel nest boxes, which is part of our Raptor Nest Box Project. We have run this project since 2008, growing from an initial 38 boxes to around 1600 now! We have boxes for Barn Owls, Tawny Owls, Little Owls and Kestrels.

There is a unique kind of joy that comes from watching a live camera positioned on a nest, like you have been the only person invited to look into a normally hidden world that no one else can see. Watching new life unfold in front of you feels incredibly special.

From the first glimpses of the chocolate brown mottled eggs to the thrilling hatching of chicks, our Kestrel Camera truly provided a rollercoaster of emotions! The stage was set for nature’s drama to play out as it deemed fit. Many (addicted) viewers were able to watch the tireless dedication of the adult Kestrels, hunting and delivering food, along with the fragile and sometimes jeopardous balance of survival for the chicks as they grew and jostled for their share of the spoils their parents brought to the box. It is a privilege fostering both awe and empathy for these stunning and charismatic birds, once a common sighting across the UK landscape.

Beyond the mere fascination and intrigue of such insight, these live feeds can be a powerful tool for education and engaging people in conservation efforts. They can enlighten us on ecology and behaviour in real time, igniting curiosity into these birds, their conservation, habitat needs, feeding habits and so much more.

At the forefront of this, for us, is the crucial importance of providing and enhancing nesting habitats, not just for Kestrels, but for a host of British cavity-nesting birds of prey, whose populations depend on having nesting opportunities in suitable habitats to ensure they can thrive. In the UK, natural nest sites have become increasingly scarce. Each nest box provides opportunity for shelter, sanctuary and nesting, while a camera on these helps connects people to the urgent need for stewardship of these remarkable birds and the landscapes they inhabit.

This year has been a tough one for the cavity nesters in the RNBP. Only three successful Tawny Owl nests were recorded by our British Projects Manager, Dr Matt Stevens, while many Kestrel nests have struggled too. This is in sharp contrast to last year and is the worst year we have registered since 2013. While there is still time in the Barn Owl nesting season, box checks so far suggest it will also be a quiet year for them too.

A lack of prey is the most likely reason for how things have gone this year. The small mammal surveying that we carry out every year across several local sites has produced very few captures so far, with many days seeing no small mammals. This is a striking difference from last year, where some single days were in double figures for captures! The high breeding success of raptors last year, combined with a wet winter followed by a dry spring and summer, has likely contributed to the current scarcity of small mammals and in particular, Short-tailed Voles, a favoured food for Kestrels and Barn Owls in particular. The abundance of predators last year all eating Short-tailed Voles and the unfavourable weather conditions have likely combined to prevent the vole populations from recovering sufficiently. Where Kestrels will diversify their diet more, showing their adaptability, Barn Owls are much less adaptable and so we anticipate very few of our approximately 900 Barn Owl boxes being used for breeding this year.

Such a hard year across these species underlines the importance of the work we do and makes the tracking data we are after from adult nesting Kestrels even more valuable and interesting. Unfortunately, at the same time, it has also made it much harder to find enough successful and appropriate nest boxes to safely catch and attach trackers to as many birds as we would like. Nonetheless we are underway, with three Kestrels now wearing backpack trackers, two females and one male, which is a very positive start to take from the situation and will provide vital data for us to use to help us try and arrest the decline of these iconic birds.

Despite the challenges, the moments captured on our Kestrel Camera this breeding season have been a beacon of joy and inspiration, reminding us of why this work matters. In a tough year, this one nest has sparked joy, learning, and renewed motivation to keep pushing forward our work for these birds that mean so much to us and many others across the UK!

If you’ve been inspired by our young Kestrels this year, you can help us conserve them. This year, we are aiming to raise £60,000 to expand our work with Kestrels. This work includes looking after their nest boxes and fitting the adults with trackers to learn more about their behaviour. We are bowled over that you have given us nearly £30,000 already and are so thankful for this support. Head to our fundraising page to continue supporting these beautiful birds, and our work to stop their decline.

Our Marion Paviour Award winner for 2024, Kioko has been busy in the field, with him and his team making great headway.

Kioko’s project aims to reduce human-wildlife conflict and protect critically endangered vulture populations in Laikipia, Kenya. He is particularly focusing on engaging local communities and collaborating with them as a way to achieve his objectives.

So far Kioko has made great progress, balancing research work in the field as well as engaging with local communities and forming positive relationships in these spaces. The team has established a growing Vulture Guardian network in local communities as well as rapid response protocols to poisoning events, and while this is still in the early stages, Kioko and his team are already recording a reduction in poisoning events in their targeted areas. In addition, communities have started to become more proactive in reporting any suspicious activities and potential poisoning events they see – something that was not occurring at all beforehand.

Perhaps most encouraging is the appearance of a shift in perceptions by members of local communities. Many members of the communities Kioko is working with, now view vultures as beneficial rather than harmful, with Kioko reporting that many are requesting training on how to safely handle poisoned vultures and are reporting any incidents. All these efforts are important steps toward creating a healthier and more sustainable environment for vultures across the wider Laikipia area. By actively involving local communities, these efforts also help lay the groundwork for long-term support, ensuring that residents not only understand the value of vultures but also become advocates for their protection and future conservation strategies – a key objective behind Kioko’s project.

In addition, Kioko has broadened his outreach efforts within these communities to raise awareness about the dangers posed by road traffic and powerlines, not just to vultures, but to a wide range of wildlife. By highlighting these threats, which can sometimes be overlooked, his work is encouraging a more thoughtful and proactive approach to wildlife conservation. The hope is that this growing awareness will continue to shift public attitudes, nurturing a stronger, more widespread culture of respect and stewardship for wildlife across the region.

We are also getting excited for what might be coming next our Marion Paviour Award, with applications open for our 2025 award until the end of August. Past applications have come in from many parts of the world and for many different species and we are looking forward to seeing many incredible and beneficial projects that will help conserve birds of prey. We are pleased to be able to offer a slightly increased award of £1250 this year – get those applications in! The full details of the award criteria and application process can be found by clicking this link.

As we get back into the hectic season of nest box checks for our Raptor Nest Box Project, we wanted to share our progress from last year!

Last year our nest box network grew to over 1600 boxes, most of which fall in a core area of about 4,500Km², although we have many placed outside that area too.

Over the last couple of months our team of volunteers and our British Raptor Programme Research Assistant, Tanith Jones, have been busy building new and replacement boxes. This helps maintain and grow our network of boxes as old or broken ones are replaced and new ones put up. It does mean, however, that the area and number of boxes to cover for our British Projects Manager, Dr Matt Stevens, is pretty extensive and makes for a full-on next few months!

2024 looked set to be a great year for numbers of the birds targeted in this project, Little Owls, Tawny Owls, Barn Owls and Kestrels, and while the amount of rain quite literally dampened our expectations and unfortunately quite possibly numbers too, it still looks as though all four species produced good numbers across our Southern England survey area. At least 7 Little Owls, 66 Tawny Owls, 340 Barn Owls and 220 Kestrels fledged from our boxes in 2024. That means a minimum of 1800 Kestrels, 370 Tawny Owls, 65 Little Owls and 2500 Barn Owls have fledged from the Raptor Nest Box Project boxes since the project started with just 38 boxes back in 2008!

At this time of the year, in particular, we like to remind everyone of intrepid Tawny Owl chicks! Tawny Owl chicks are highly adventurous and tend to leave the nest well before they are able to fly. The young owlets hop from branch to branch, exploring their surroundings; a behaviour known as “branching”. Consequently, chicks will often fall to the ground, their landing softened by their thick, fluffy feathers. Even at a young age they have strong beaks and feet and so are usually able to climb back up the tree to the nest, and their parents will continue feeding the youngster even while they are on the ground. If you do come across a young Tawny Owl on the ground, the best thing to do is leave it where it is, unless it is in immediate danger or is noticeably injured. If you do think it is in immediate danger, for example from cars on a busy road, you can move it to a nearby hedge or branch to avoid the danger.

Our Tawny Owl boxes are designed with a deep, narrow chamber inside to delay these adventurous chicks emerging too soon before they are ready to fly. This will hopefully help ensure more chicks of this British Amber Listed bird of prey make it to adulthood.

These nest boxes not only provide potential nesting locations to cavity nesting birds of prey, but they also provide us valuable research opportunities into these birds that would otherwise be tricky for us to get. This year, for example we will be making use of these boxes to help us place tracking tags onto some adult Kestrels to carry out research never done before in the UK – watch this space for all the updates. This year our team fundraiser is in support of our Kestrel conservation efforts. If you want to help us out, please visit out donations page here.

Last month, we said goodbye to our Conservation and Research Intern, Mathilde Ducroz, as she finished her seven month Internship here at the Hawk Conservancy Trust. We caught up with her in her final month to hear about her time with us and the hands-on experience she gained.

“As my time at the Trust is coming to an end after an exciting and packed seven months, here are some of the things I have been up to as Conservation and Research Intern.

My first week started strong with a successful moth trapping session in the Savannah Arena. Having not studied them in great detail before, it was nice to discover more about these animals and see the diversity of shapes, sizes and colours, in particular their camouflage capabilities (as can be seen on the picture below of the Miller blending in with the rocky ground). Some species that caught my eye were all the hawk-moths (such as the Poplar Hawk-Moth below). Over my time at the Trust, we conducted multiple sessions and it was interesting to see the difference in species at various locations and time of year. For example, the trap in the Woodland Arena yielded a very different catch than the ones in Reg’s Wildflower Meadow or the Savannah Arena with a very large number of Large Yellow Underwing. Although I came not knowing anything about them, I quickly started recognising species, picking up identification tips from our extremely knowledgeable biodiversity volunteers Monica and Brigid. I highly recommend giving it a go in your garden at home, all you need is a strong lightbulb, white sheet, some egg boxes and a field guide (or the internet)!

During my time here, I also carried out many other surveys using a variety of techniques to measure biodiversity on-site. This included butterfly transects, vegetation quadrats, small mammal footprint tunnels, camera trapping and more. All are useful skills for future jobs. I even, to my surprise, enjoyed pitfall trapping, which looks at invertebrate life on site. Who would have thought there was such a variety of spiders? Below is a picture of the more colourful Wasp Spider. Over July, August and September, I also helped Tanith, the Trust’s Research Assistant, with small mammal surveying at the Trust and two other local external sites. If you want to learn more about this project, I recommend reading our previous blog post explaining it in more detail. By far what I enjoyed the most was monitoring the progress of our Barn Swallow nests on-site, including one just by the front door of my accommodation. A total of 11 chicks fledged from three different nests so if you ever visit around July and August keep your eye and ears peeled for them!

After a busy summer period of surveying, October was a lot quieter. I spent a lot of time writing up fact sheets based on recent research on the different birds of prey flown at the Trust. These will be used by the Bird and Marketing Teams when wanting new information to use during displays or post about our bird’s counterparts in the wild. I gained a wide breadth of knowledge on the ecology and behaviour of various birds of prey including some fun facts. Did you know that Golden Eagles in Greece have learnt to feed on tortoises by dropping them onto rocks? Or that the Little Owl’s scientific name, Athene noctua, is named after the bird’s association with Athena, the goddess of wisdom?

From October to December, I helped Dr Matt Stevens, our British Projects Manager, by doing a few raptor transects across the south-east of the country from Banbury to Whitstable to Brighton.  What’s better than collecting valuable scientific data while walking across the English countryside (plus it’s a fair-weather survey, so no need worry about getting soaked!)? It was really nice to learn distance sampling surveying using a range finder and compass, which is sure to be useful for me in the future. Some birding highlights included a Merlin and three Marsh Harriers as well as any Kestrel sighted (especially when seen hovering). Other than birds of prey, I also saw Stonechats which are always a treat to observe, a Kingfisher and a Woodcock. The most memorable, despite not being a bird, was without a doubt a very special encounter with an Otter.

This last month, I have focused on the analysis and report writing of the project I have been undertaking. I looked at the diversity and abundance of wild birds at the Hawk Conservancy Trust using data from surveys I carried out, as well as data from previous years. In doing this, I had the chance to refresh and improve my coding and analysis skills. The analysis showed that wild bird diversity and abundance has increased on-site, in particular for woodland species. It is nice to see some more unusual birds appearing regularly at the Trust such as Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers. Close encounters with the local Kestrel is always a treat. Some rare one-off sightings included a Common Snipe and Barn Owl, both at the bottom left of the meadow so keep your eyes peeled next time you visit!

Working at the Trust allowed me to attend the flying displays and I particularly enjoyed the Brilliant Bird Brain sessions at the end of day. I highly recommend staying until the end of the day during the summer timetable for them. These often quieter sessions allow visitors to gain insight into how the birds are trained and meet a species which you might not have seen at other displays. I also took the opportunity to see some of the special events, all better than the next, from Sunset at the Trust to the Christmas Market to the latest Winter Woodland Lights.

It has been a pleasure to be working at the Trust and I will miss working with the people here. I felt welcomed from my first day and integrated into the team. A special thank you to Jamie, our Conservation and Research Coordinator, and Tanith, our Research Assistant on the British Raptor Programme, who had to put up with me the most! I am sad to leave but hope that future projects or career opportunities will lead me to work with the Trust again.”

February brings us National Nest Box Week – as you can imagine, a pretty big deal for us here at the Hawk Conservancy Trust! Started by the British Trust for Ornithology, National Nest Box Week starts on 14 February – Valentine’s Day – every year.

Nest site availability can be a limiting factor for bird populations that typically nest in cavities, such as tree hollows, old pots and pipes or the lofts of old buildings. Providing artificial nesting sites (nest boxes) can help improve this.

This forms the basis for our Raptor Nest Box Project that focuses on the four UK cavity-nesting birds of prey: Kestrels, Little Owls, Tawny Owls and Barn Owls. As areas of suitable habitat have become increasingly limited, greater pressure has been placed on Kestrel and owl populations. Areas of rough grassland, grazed pastureland and suitably wide crop field margins are now important habitats for populations of these birds, as they represent the main hunting and foraging areas for them. For these birds to easily exploit these habitats they need nesting opportunities. Nest boxes can provide these opportunities – an effective conservation tool in areas where existing breeding sites are threatened with destruction or are subject to human disturbance.

Nest boxes also facilitate access to nests for the purpose of population monitoring. We manage a network of over 1500 raptor nest boxes across a core area of around 4500Km²  in southern England. This provides incredibly valuable data for us to better understand what might affect nest box use, breeding success and level of productivity (i.e. number of chicks produced).

At the Hawk Conservancy Trust we also have many bird boxes in place for our local wild songbirds at the Trust. If you have a space at home, you can help too! A bird box with a small hole entrance could help Blue Tits, Great Tits or House Sparrows, while an open fronted box is great for Robins, Wrens or Pied Wagtails. We also have Swift boxes on site – some of which have been generously gifted to us by the general public through our Amazon Wishlist, for which we are very grateful! The Swift boxes are a relatively new addition to the Trust. This year we saw Swifts in the sky over the Trust regularly and noticed explorations into our nest boxes too! We are very hopeful that they will settle in and make a home here this year. Fingers and feathers crossed!

Fun fact! – The earliest reference to Valentine’s Day as a romantic celebration appears in Chaucer’s poem The Parliament of Fowls, in the 14^th Century! In the poem, Chaucer envisioned the day as the moment that birds come together to select their mates under nature’s guidance. Some poetic licence perhaps, but nonetheless, the middle of February is a great time to observe nesting behaviour of many different birds.

Photos: Neil Saunders (@Hamilton_Farm)

2024 was another busy year for our Conservation and Research team, with over 20 projects running from England to Asia and Africa! As we look ahead to another year working hard to conserve birds of prey and their habitats, we wanted reflect on the last twelve months of work, and share some exciting updates from a few of these projects. Check out some project highlights below!

Raptor Nest Box Project

Our nest box numbers in our Raptor Nest Box Project now exceed 1500 boxes!

Dr Matt Stevens, formally our UK Conservation Biologist and now our British Projects Manager, always has a very busy summer tirelessly checking on these boxes across our network for breeding success of Kestrels, Barn Owls, Tawny Owls and Little Owls.

This year looked set to be a great year for numbers of all these birds, and while the amount of rain quite literally dampened our expectations and unfortunately quite possibly numbers too, it still looks as though all four species produced good numbers across our Southern England survey area.

Matt was also joined this year by our new Research Assistant, Tanith Jones, who has already begun supporting this project. Watch this space for more exciting updates from the team!

Raptor Transects

The end of 2024 also saw us complete another successful autumn season of our Raptor Transects, building on those from our spring season. On our spring transects, we recorded 371 Buzzards, 321 Red Kites, 118 Kestrels along with 16 Sparrowhawks and 8 Marsh Harriers with a few other species seen too! We are in the process of finalising the numbers from the autumn season that finished in December, but we expect they will be very competitive when compared to past seasons.

We completed exactly 150 transects this autumn, thanks to vital support from our dedicated volunteers, with a whopping 1751 sightings of birds of prey, including Merlins, Marsh Harriers and Peregrine Falcons, as well as Red Kite, Buzzard and Kestrel sightings! This autumn season has seen our highest numbers sighted EVER across both spring and autumn transects, so that is very exciting!

Central Asia Vulture Project

This year’s fieldwork saw the Central Asian Vulture Project team tag four more Egyptian Vultures and track their migrations. Our data currently shows that India is the main non-breeding destination for most of the migrating Egyptian Vultures we are tracking, but some individuals also migrate to the Middle East. Counts within Uzbekistan continue to show the congregations of several hundred Egyptian Vultures in the country, emphasising this as a globally significant population for this Endangered species. We are looking forward to what 2025 brings.

Lappet-faced Vulture Nesting Tree Project

Our Head of Conservation, Research and Education, Dr Campbell Murn, spent three periods of fieldwork in South Africa this year, along with our Africa Project Officer, André Botha. This has helped contribute to a year of steady progress for this relatively new project looking into elephants knocking over nesting trees of  Endangered Lappet-faced Vultures in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

This fieldwork saw us increase the total number of trees being monitored using camera traps to 12. These will provide valuable insights as we continue to move forwards with this project in 2025. While we continue to monitor the trees to better understand the situation, we are continuing to investigate ways we can try and prevent elephants from knocking over these specific trees.

Your generous donations helped us hit our fundraising goal, and you helped us raise over £20,000, all of which goes towards helping fund progress on this project. Thank you!

Pakistan Vulture Restoration Project

A key part of the project work in Pakistan is to remove vulture-harmful non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) from the market. These are drugs that are toxic to vultures, and often ingested by them accidentally after feeding on carcasses of animals that have been treated with them. This is a key step for ensuring robust safe zones for release of captive bred vultures that will help the population recover. Until the threats are removed though, it is not possible to release these birds.

As such, comprehensive pharmacy surveys across the country, but particularly where vulture safe zones have been demarcated are vital. This year our on-the-ground partners, WWF-Pakistan, completed surveys in all 10 districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, as well as along the coastline between Karachi and Gwadar in the Balochistan province. Work to analyse this data is underway to better understand what drugs and in what volume remain readily available, and the variation between locations, which will give an indication of the progress being made and latest state of harmful NSAID levels and removal in each location.

And into 2025…

Thank you for continuing to support our mission to conserve birds of prey and their habitats in 2024. Every time you visit, buy a coffee in Feathers Restaurant, join us for a fundraising event and make a donation, you’re supporting this important conservation work. We hope you continue to help us help birds of prey into the new year – we have some exciting work planned for 2025 which will help us support even more of these vital species. If you’re looking for ways to support our work, check out the Support page of our website.

Please give a warm welcome to Tanith Jones, who joins our Conservation and Research Team as our new Research Assistant! In this exciting and important role, Tanith is supporting our UK Conservation Biologist Dr Matt Stevens with our vital conservation work. She’s already got stuck in carrying out transect surveys, helping monitor nest boxes, and even building a few of them herself!

“I am very excited to have recently joined the Hawk Conservancy Trust as a Research Assistant within the Conservation and Research Department. Growing up in Hampshire, not too far from the Trust, I have memories of my parents teaching me how to identify Kestrels and Buzzards from the car on the way to school. It is very surreal to now be working here, 15 years or so later, as part of a very knowledgeable and engaging team that share a wonderful enthusiasm for birds of prey.

I recently graduated from Bangor University with a BSc (Hons) Zoology with Animal Behaviour degree. My initial drive to study stemmed from wanting to pursue veterinary medicine, but during my studies, I quickly found my true interests lie within the world of conservation and research, and of course, birds!

In my third year of study, I completed a 12-month placement in the Scottish Lowlands as part of an EU-funded project, PARTRIDGE. This project focused on farmland biodiversity through specifically designed agri-environmental schemes, their management and the monitoring of our native grey partridge. This year really cemented my love for conservation and how these projects can help improve our understanding on how to protect species through evidence-based conservation. It was eye-opening working alongside landowners, farmers, a variety of scientists as well as politicians; Each person playing an important role, collaborating toward improving farmland biodiversity.

My final year dissertation project was based on Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) morphometric and accelerometry data, investigating energy expenditure of foraging flights around Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli). I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the bird observatory here, getting involved in daily bird counts and ringing. It was an unforgettable experience listening to the eerie sounds of thousands of Manx Shearwater at night, and after months of processing the flight data on a computer, it was incredible to have the opportunity to work in-person with these hardy birds and put the project into a whole new perspective.

Both experiences highlighted my wish to work in ornithological conservation and research, and so to be a part of the British Raptor Programme is very exciting. This programme involves a variety of UK-based conservation projects, including the Raptor Nest Box project, small mammal trapping and raptor transect surveys across the Southeast of the UK. Supporting Dr Matt Stevens, our UK Conservation Biologist, I am looking forward to using my previous experiences as a foundation to contribute to these projects, learn more about our beautiful birds of prey and how best to protect their future within our countryside. The last few months have been action-packed, and I have very much enjoyed getting stuck in from the get-go!”