Hawks Aloft/

Hawks Aloft

Hawks Aloft is a diverse organization that offers a variety of services including:

1. Conservation Education in the community reaches children and adults throughout New Mexico, and features non-releasable birds of prey. We offer a range of program for all ages:

      Living with the Landscape serves all students at participating Title 1 elementary schools in the Albuquerque metropolitan area.  This grant funded program is offered at no charge to schools.  The school-year-long program is most comprehensive for students in grades 3-5.  They receive multiple classroom presentations, always including two live raptors, that focus on various biological and conservation topics, such as avian biology migration, watersheds, fire, etc.  Students in fourth and fifth grades also participate in field trips to nearby wild areas with an emphasis on our outdoor curriculum.  Fifth grade students implement a conservation project at their school.  Students in lower grades receive 1-2 classroom presentations.  The program culminates at the end of the school year with a family night at the school where students and their families can learn more about birds and nature.  Students also demonstrate what they have learned with this program throughout the school year.  

     Bird Of Prey Programs serve all ages, from early elementary through high school.  They range from 1-2 hours and cover a broad range of topics.  The live birds presented are relevant to the topic of that program.

     Reading with Raptors is designed for pre-school through kindergarten.  This unique program features small owls and other small raptors, guaranteed to engage the youngest students.  We read age appropriate books such as "Owl Babies".  The main focus of this program is to leave students with a love for and appreciation of birds.

    Adult Programs cover a wide range of topics. These single visit presentations are led by expert speakers and feature live raptors, including field biology,  raptor identification, conservation, all about owls, birding by ear, raptors in winter, birding New Mexico, birds of the riparian bosque, and special interest topics.

     Community Outreach.  As an active participant in our community, we are often invited to community events throughout New Mexico and neighboring states. Such programs encourage people to make positive environmental choices and conserve New Mexico’s unique natural heritage. Depending on the size of the event, we take somewhere between two to fifteen educational raptors to help the cause of the event and promote environmental awareness. All of this work cannot be done without the help of our spectacular volunteers.

2.  Avian Research and Monitoring documents avian response to a variety of land management actions.  Below is a short list of projects.

Middle Rio Grande Sonbird Study is the first comprehensive replication of the avian and vegetation portions of the Middle Rio Grande Biological Survey completed in 1984. We are sampling avian abundance and species richness relative to vegetation community and structure (C/S) types within the Middle Rio Grande Bosque. The study area encompasses 79 river miles between the city of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, in the north, and the La Joya State Game Refuge to the south.

3.  Raptor Rescue.  Hawks Aloft is one of the few organizations statewide will pick-up an injured raptor. Working with the local wildlife veterinarians, we coordinate with our rescue coordinator and volunteers to safely transport the raptor to the nearest clinic. We also work with other local wildlife rehabilitators to make the best recovery program for each rescued bird.  We are authorized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to perform raptor rescue (or transporting a bird from one location to another) necessary to comply with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

4. Conservation and Collaboration with Others. Please check back for more information on our efforts in this area.