Hawk Mountain, world's first refuge for birds of prey, turns 90 with international activists

DREHERSVILLE — There was a time when it was open season on goshawks on Kittatinny Ridge, an outcropping that straddles Schuylkill and Berks counties.

In 1934, after reading an article by amateur ornithologist Richard Pough, New York conservationist Rosalie Edge bought 1,400 acres on Hawk Mountain and installed Maurice and Irma Broun as conservators.

The shooting stopped immediately, and the preserve Edge created would go on to become the world’s first refuge for birds of prey.

On Saturday, 90 years later, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary will observe its anniversary with a symposium of wildlife preservationists from around the world.

On World Migratory Bird Day, experts from Africa, Colombia and the United Kingdom will talk about the challenges, successes and future of global raptor conservation at the site, where it all began.

Sean Welker Grace, president, said all of the speakers received training at the Acopian Center for Conservation and Learning, Hawk Mountain’s educational arm.

Indeed, an estimated 500 interns from 76 countries have undergone training at Hawk Mountain.

“We are truly a global training facility,” said Grace, the sanctuary’s president for six years. “It’s a community of people who are like-minded, and Hawk Mountain brings them all together.”

The 90th anniversary celebration, Grace said, is the first ever reunion of former interns held at Hawk Mountain.

On Friday morning, Grace sat down with several of the international guests for an informal conversation in Hawk Mountain’s headquarters.

Ana Maria Castano, who trained at Hawk Mountain in 1993, set up the first raptor migration counting station in Colombia. She went on to become president of the Colombian Ornithological Society.

Castano has done considerable work in monitoring the migration pattern of the Swainson hawk, which passes through Hawk Mountain in September on its 4,300-mile journey to Colombia.

One of the primary lessons of her internship, she said, was to follow an international protocol for counting migrating raptors developed at Hawk Mountain.

“We need to be accurate in the data we collect,” Castano said, “so it can be understood by people around the world.”

Ruth Tingay, an intern in 1996, said there was no resource like Hawk Mountain in Scotland, where she lives.

“It was a real eye-opener to find a place like this,” she said, “and to find people that are so committed and passionate about raptors.”

Birds of prey, Tingay said, are still persecuted in parts of the United Kingdom.

“It’s really refreshing and invigorating to come back here, and to immerse yourself in this group of people who share your passion,” she said. “I don’t think there is anything else in the world like it.”

Wouter Vansteelant, an intern 14 years ago, started the Batumi Raptor Count in the Republic of Georgia. He is currently a senior researcher at the BirdEyes Center for Global Ecological Change at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.

Much like Hawk Mountain in the 1920s, the area of Georgia was known as a mecca for shooting European Honey Buzzards on their way from Europe to Africa.

The Batumi Raptor Count, now one of the biggest watch sites in the world, registers more than 1 million raptors a year.

Vansteelant’s program put the region on the map as a spot for eco-tourism, turning the raptors into an income producing attraction.

“It started a conservation about the value of raptors,” he said. “We created a social dynamic in the community that has worked to reduce hunting.”

Castano, a Hawk Mountain board member, says the fate of raptors is intertwined with that of the environment.

“It’s not just raptors; it’s a wider view of conservation and education,” she said. “We need to convince everybody to protect their habitat.”

The symposium runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The Perk Up Truck and Why Not Burgerz food trucks will be on-site Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There is no formal program Sunday, but the annual Spring Migration Watch is underway.