Autumn Lecture Series

After a Saturday of hawkwatching, stay for an entertaining and informative talk by Hawk Mountain staff or other wildlife experts. All lectures are FREE and held Saturdays at 5 pm in the Visitor Center gallery.

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Bald eagles in Pa: Conservation success story

Patti Barber, Biologist
Endangered Species Biologist
Pennsylvania Game Commission
Saturday, September 28 at 5 pm, Visitor Center

Join us for an informative presentation on the conservation success story of the Bald Eagle in Pennsylvania, including a look back on the times when eagles had all but disappeared from the Commonwealth, and an update on the impressive number of nests throughout the state. Patti’s talk will include information on breeding success rates, and the newer issue of human-eagle interactions and how to move forward in a shared environment.

Passionately Curious: Striated Caracaras on the Falkland Islands

Keith Bildstein, Ph.D., Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science
Saturday, October 5

Dr. Bildstein has been studying scavenging raptors since 2003, including fieldwork on turkey vultures in the Falkland Islands. Here, his research expanded to include the island’s other scavenging raptor, the Striated Caracara, a globally-threatened island-endemic bird of prey. Dr. Bildstein will share background on the adaptations of this charismatic raptor, why the birds are so easy to trap and tag, the experience of spending more than a month on the barren Falklands without access to phones or email, and why these amazing birds face a conservation crisis.

Pennsylvania Barn Owls: A grassland raptor in decline

Daniel Mummert, Wildlife Diversity Biologist,
Pennsylvania Game Commission
Saturday, October 19 at 5 pm, Visitor Center

Learn more about the Pennsylvania Game Commission and their statewide conservation initiative to learn more about the Barn Owl and how landowners can help to slow its decline. Dan’s talk will cover the basics of Barn Owl biology, the conservation issues that affect their population, his work banding the nestlings, the basics of barn owl nest boxes, and the new partnership with Hawk Mountain and its Farmland Raptor Project.

Satellite tracking Ospreys: Migration, Ecology, and Conservation

Saturday, October 12 at 5 pm, Visitor Center

Rob Bierregaard, Ph.D., Research Associate in Ornithology
Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University

Rob Bierregaard has been tagging Ospreys in the eastern United States since 2000, and shares with us his work using satellite transmitters on 37 juvenile and 23 adult Ospreys. His studies, the first to ever collect a significant body of data on juvenile migration, have led to surprising discoveries about the dispersal and migration of naïve Ospreys as they leave their natal territories and explore the world around them. Rob shares a look inside the nest and along the migratory path, and explains how the ever-more sophisticated satellite technology is enabling scientists to document unprecedented detail on the hunting behavior of adult males feeding their families.