This summer, Bird Team member Owen Lincoln is celebrating his birthday in style - by lacing up his hiking boots and taking on the Three Peaks challenge to raise funds for vulture conservation!

With the tallest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales to conquer in just 24 hours, this is no mean feat. Owen is in training and has been spending his days off racking up the miles. So far, the longest walk he has completed in training is 34km, walking over 50,000 steps!

Owen is hoping to raise £8000 for our Pakistan Vulture Restoration Project (PVRP) - an important part of our work conserving Asian vultures. Since the mid-1990s, tens of millions of vultures in south Asia have died from ingesting a veterinary drug called diclofenac – a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is highly toxic to vultures if they feed on the carcass of an animal that has been treated with it shortly before death.

This important project aims to create Vulture Safe Zones free of this drug for wild vulture populations to thrive. The Trust also funds a breeding centre in Changa Manga, run by WWF-Pakistan, for Asian White-backed Vultures to one day be released into these safe zones, helping to boost numbers of these birds in the wild.

Although Owen has previously completed each peak separately, the challenge of completing them all within 24 hours is a daunting task – and on his birthday no less! He will need your help and support to get him to the top of all three mountains, as well as helping him hit his goal to raise £8000 for this incredible project.