Winner of Literary Competition Announced

To celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day 2018, we invited you to take part in our Literary Competition.

We received some fantastic entries and are pleased to announce that Martha (junior category) and Dave Winship (adult category) have been selected as the winners. They have each won the adoption of a vulture for a year, as well as being invited to the Trust to meet a Hooded Vulture!

Vulture

by Martha, age 7

Vultures soaring all around the Savannah.

Up swept in the air, gliding through the sunlight.

Lovely, smooth wings cutting through the air.

Towering over everything as they fly through the sky.

Up close you will truly see how magnificent they are.

Ripping the flesh off the bone, cleaning the plains.

Epic birds becoming endangered, please stop, please help.

Vultures

by Dave Winship

Vultures are my favourite bird!

Now you might think I jest –

They don’t have showy feathers,

Their bald heads don’t impress.

They might seem fierce when you behold

That hooked and mighty beak,

But they don’t catch their prey themselves –

Their feet are far too weak.

The vultures in The Jungle Book

Were based upon a band

That gave us fab pop music like

‘I wanna hold your hand’.

But if you think that vultures sing,

You’re in for quite a shock.

Grunting, hissing, barking sounds –

It’s hardly classic rock.

You might just disagree with me –

I’m sure some people would.

But I believe they’re special birds

That do a lot of good.

For a world without the vultures

Would be a smelly place.

And without these unsung heroes,

Disease would spread apace.

We shouldn’t take objection to

Their rather grim cuisine.

Although it seems quite gross to us,

They keep things nice and clean.

In the struggle for survival

They’re running out of luck.

I’ve heard that poachers poison them –

Well that just chokes me up.

When rangers hear of incidents,

Off to the scene they dash.

Response kits are the vital tools,

For which they want our cash.

The vultures need our help right now,

Or soon they won’t be here,

So let’s do what we can today

Before they disappear.