“Boots on the ground—4:15!!”
Doug Loney’s booming voice echoed in our ears as we drove away from Desert Rat Studio, in Maricopa, Arizona. We were three days into a week of field work trapping Turkey Vultures as part of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary’s New World Vulture Project.
From 1996-1997, SJV Education and Outreach Coordinator Jennie Duberstein was an education intern at Hawk Mountain. So when Dr. Keith Bildstein, HMS’s Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science, called us last fall to ask for some ground support for his vulture project, the Sonoran Joint Venture was happy to lend a hand. The goal: trap and attach satellite transmitters to six Turkey Vultures. The Arizona sub-species, Cathartes aura aura, is little known, and this research would add to our understanding of its ecology and conservation needs.
We put the word out through our SJV communications channels and quickly connected with Doug and Julie Loney, who have been thoughtfully developing the landscape on their property south of Maricopa, Arizona, into a wildlife haven. Doug has a soft spot in his heart for vultures, and as he lives down the road from several large dairy farms, he has plenty soaring overhead. The dairy agreed to supply us with fresh bait and Doug agreed to be our man on the ground, pre-baiting the trap site in anticipation of our trapping effort.
The research team arrived to Tucson in late May: Drs. Keith Bildstein and Jean-Francois Therrien from Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and Dr. Marc Bechard from Boise State University and after a night in Tucson, we all headed north to the Maricopa area the following morning.
Although Doug had done an excellent job pre-baiting the site and the birds were there, catching vultures turned out to be a challenge and we found ourselves changing tactics over the course of the week. Ultimately, though, we were successful, catching six Turkey Vultures, who were all satellite tagged, as well as and three “bonus” Black Vultures, who received yellow wing tags instead of satellite transmitters. 
See more pictures of our trapping effort on the SJV Facebook Page (give us a ‘like’ while you’re at it!) And be sure to view near real-time maps of the Turkey Vulture’s movements (along with the movements of all other birds tagged throughout the world as part of this project) on the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary website.
Special thanks to Doug and Julie Loney for their dedicated support of this effort. They welcome birders (by appointment only) to Desert Rat Studio, where you can see nesting Burrowing Owls, along with many other species, as well as enjoy their spectacular cactus garden.