Hawk Mountain Sanctuary will host a celebration for International Vulture Awareness Day on Saturday,starting at noon. The event will include a free live vulture program, educational activities for children, and talk on vultures and their conservation status by Director of Conservation Science Dr. Keith Bildstein.

Red Creek Wildlife Center will offer a live vulture program at noon in the sanctuary's outdoor amphitheater.Visitors are encouraged to trek to the lookouts to enjoy the Autumn Hawk Watch that will be well underway, with possibly large numbers of raptors soaring past.Bildstein's talk will describe the world vulture crisis as well as the sanctuary's ongoing work with vultures in North America, South America and Africa. He will discuss the important role vultures play in ecosystems. The talk will take place in the Visitor Center Gallery at 5:30 p.m.The day also marks the official opening of the new trail-side gallery along Silhouette Trail.The specially commissioned gallery features life-size, in-flight silhouettes of seven of the world's 22 species of vultures and condors. A brochure describing these will be available at the trail entrance, and the silhouettes will remain in place through December.In addition to the festivities, the Fall Weekend Programs will begin Saturday as well.The available programs cover a variety of raptor observation basics and offer guests and additional, unique education opportunity.The schedule includes: Raptors Up Close! at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Trapping and Tracking Raptors at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.; Binocular Basics at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.; and Name that Raptor at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.Additional details can be found at hawkmountain.org/weekendprograms.To learn more about Hawk Mountain or other programs, call 610-756-6961 or visit

www.hawkmountain.org.