They soar silently overhead, circle the skies and are often overlooked… We’re talking about vultures. However, this weekend, the vultures themselves are asking residents to pay attention!

It’s Vulture Count Day, which means that local birders and conservationists will be counting them.

International Vulture Awareness Day is on this Saturday (September 5). Birders will take part in a vulture count on the day, every vulture spotted can help conservationists. So residents are being encouraged to keep their heads up and their eyes pointing skyward for conservation as part of Vulture Count Day.

Nature’s clean-up crew

Vultures are often labelled as nature’s clean-up crew, devouring carcasses and in so doing, helping to remove decaying material from the environment. By rapidly turning carcasses to bone, vultures help reduce the opportunity for diseases to spread to other animals.

Vultures themselves are under threat. South Africa is home to a whopping seven vulture species, several of which are facing serious conservation concerns, including the endangered Bearded, Cape and White Backed vultures.

While poisoning remains one of the biggest dangers, vultures are also killed or injured by flying into Eskom power lines. Other dangers include disruption to breeding sites and illegal killing (hunting).

For KZN farming areas, nature reserves and game properties which stretch across large parts of the province, the protection of vultures requires co-operation between conservationists, farmers, landowners and ordinary residents, says Peter Nelson of the Ladysmith Birders.

Where the public can help

Birders and residents do not need to be ornithologists to take part. Simply spotting a vulture and recording the sighting on an app like bird lasser can contribute to the bigger conservation picture.

BirdLife South Africa, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and VulPro are actively engaged in research, monitoring, and conservation efforts to protect these creatures, despite their being misunderstood and often maligned.

So, when you are outside this Saturday, take a moment to look upwards. That large bird circling high above Ladysmith may not just be passing through.

It could be a small but important piece of information in the fight to protect one of nature’s most valuable clean-up crews.

If you see a vulture?

So watch the sky, and where feasible, document what you observe, including location, bird count, and your sighting time.

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