New classroom posters available

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary has produced two new raptor natural history posters for general and educational audiences, along with new raptor identification signs for use in public programming.

The posters feature the broad-winged hawk and black vulture, two raptor species that breed in Pennsylvania, and shares information about their respective migration ecology, nesting behavior, habitat needs, monitoring techniques, and more. The full-color designs were published last year through a grant from the Pennsylvania Wild Resources Conservation Program, and they offer vibrant illustrations by wildlife artist Bob Sopchick, who depicted the birds in several positions, behaviors, and ages for an inclusive overview of the two species.

The posters mark the second and third of a series illustrated by Sopchick, the first of which depicted the stunning American kestrel, a common farmland raptor across rural Pennsylvania. All three posters are now available to educators and the public for purchase in the Hawk Mountain Visitor Center Bookstore, and are now for sale online only as a pack of all three at hawkmountain.org/store.

Additionally, the Hawk Mountain education department this month updated their in-flight raptor identification posters that are used in public education programming.