After a recent LightHawk flight supporting eagle monitoring efforts, Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife partner James Erdmann shared:
“This was a fantastic flight. Not only did we see over a dozen eagle nests, but we also saw multiple eagles as well as 1 or 2 previously undocumented nests. This information will be critical for monitoring eagle populations on the reservation.”
From above, the team was able to identify nests and better understand eagle activity across the landscape.
#PartnersAreSaying #GoldenEagles #ConservationFromAbove #LightHawk
#PilotViewFriday Here's a LightHawk wing rock for volunteer pilot Kurt Fischer! Kurt has been flying with us since 2020 and has donated several flights in the years since! Based in Connecticut, he flies a Beechcraft Bonanza! Partners who have flown with him have enjoyed his flights with one commenting, "Kurt did a great job circling our points of interest and giving us great views! He was very communicative leading up to the flight as well."
Flight 5 of LightHawk’s 50 in 50 Challenge helped give four Mexican gray wolf pups a new life in the wild. Born in Missouri, the pups were flown to Arizona and placed with a foster pack, where they’ll now grow up in their natural habitat.
The cross-fostering effort also strengthens the genetic diversity of the wild population, an important step in the long-term recovery of this endangered species.
Special thanks to volunteer pilot Ken Adelman for making this flight possible!
#50in50Challenge #MexicanGrayWolf #ConservationInFlight #LightHawk
Birds of a feather, flock together. Flight 4 of LightHawk’s 50 in 50 Challenge took to the skies over Wisconsin in support of one of North America’s rarest birds, the endangered whooping crane.
Partnering with @savingcranes , the flight helped locate whooping crane nests hidden deep within remote wetlands. From the ground, these nests can be nearly impossible to find. From the air, biologists can quickly identify nest locations so ground crews can safely follow up after the flight.
Special thanks to volunteer pilot Susan Schwaab for providing the flight and helping advance whooping crane recovery efforts from above.
#50in50Challenge #WhoopingCrane #ConservationInFlight #LightHawk
Conservation and a non-huntable species like the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle right here in North America…yeah, we will tell that story too!
This year has been full of incredible conservation adventures already, but this is going to be one you won’t want to miss in 2027 on Hard Truths of Conservation! It demonstrates the passion and lengths people and organizations will go when they truly care about making a difference…stay tuned!
#cabelafamilyfoundation #hardtruthsofconservation #endangered #seaturtles #turtlesflytoo
The challenge keeps rolling! Flying above Washington's San Juan Islands completes flight 3 of the 50 In 50 Challenge! Volunteer pilot Lame Gormley kicked off year 2 of flying with the WA Department of Natural Resources to assess the impact of recreational boating on sea grass beds among the islands.
The flights included a researcher to document their observations and a wing-mounted camera to collect imagery for future analysis.
This is the first of several flights that will take place over the summer in partnership with WADNR.
Another week, another opportunity to highlight one of our amazing volunteer pilots! This week we feature a pilot on the comeback!
After a little break, volunteer pilot Michael Maya Charles returned to duty with LightHawk, flying a conservation flight in Arizona to document golden eagle nests! We're glad to have him back! As a pilot with more than 23,000 hours of flight time, he's one of our most experienced pilots. Michael is also an accomplished author, writing for a number of aviation publications! We're lucky to have him on the team!
#PilotViewFriday #VolunteerPilot #Pilot #Aviation #Flying
Walls don’t just divide landscapes. They reshape wildlife movement.
For Flight 2 of the #50in50Challenge, LightHawk flew with the Sierra Club - Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter (@sierraclubaz ) over the Bootheel region of New Mexico and Guadalupe Canyon to document how border wall construction is impacting habitat and migration routes across the southern border.
From the air, the scale of the landscape — and the barriers cutting across it — becomes impossible to ignore.
The imagery collected during the flight will help tell the story of what’s changing on the ground for wildlife in this region.
Thanks to volunteer pilot Chuck Schroll for sharing his expertise with this flight.
#ConservationFromAbove #WildlifeCorridors #Borderlands #NewMexico #AerialPerspective #LightHawk
Far out in the Arizona borderlands, in a place where jaguars, ocelots and mountain lions cross the border more frequently than migrants, the Department of Homeland Security is building not one, but two border walls through intact, pristine habitat.
What exactly does it say about the efficacy of border walls that the places that have one wall already need another?
We took this flight with @lighthawk_org and @sc_borderlands to see the status of construction. From the Patagonia Mountains, though the San Rafael Valley, to the Coronado National Memorial, It's not looking good.
Just landed!
Prairie Rivers Network (@prairie_rivers ) joined LightHawk for a 50 in 50 Challenge flight over Nahant Marsh, the Milan Bottoms/RI Wetlands, and along the Rock River to Green Valley Nature Preserve in Illinois.
The aerial perspective helped assess wetland integrity and landscape connectivity across the region, guiding conservation work happening now and informing future planning efforts.
Thank you to volunteer pilot Robert Thomas for providing the flight in his Piper Archer.
#50in50Challenge #ConservationFromAbove #AviationForGood #LightHawk
Took a whirlwind flight today with @lighthawk_org over a large swath of the Arizona borderlands. Saw the Baboquivari, Santa Rita, Patagonia and Huachuca Sky Island mountains as well as multiple open pit mines, the Atascosa Highlands, the Pajarita Wilderness, border walls, double border walls, the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers, the San Rafael Valley, federally designated jaguar, Mexican spotted owl and yellow-billed cuckoo critical habitat, as well as Sycamore Canyon and Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.
I learned a lot from on high. The world is alive. Beauty and destruction abound. I’m glad I’m here for it. Along with homies @de_cierto_sonora and @laiken_jordahl , it felt good to take in the complicated Earth.
Conservation doesn’t stop at the border.
Neither do LightHawk pilots.
For years, our volunteer pilots have flown cross-border missions into Mexico, supporting conservation work tied to shared landscapes, migratory wildlife, and the future of the Colorado River Delta.
From documenting the environmental impacts of border infrastructure to revealing ecosystem change from above, these flights help partners better understand challenges that stretch across landscapes, watersheds, and wildlife corridors.
Because the natural world is connected, whether borders exist or not.
#LightHawk #ConservationFromAbove #AerialConservation #ColoradoRiverDelta #WildlifeCorridors
