EuroBirdwatch results
Over the past weekend, more than 24.000 people took part in more than 1.000 events in 41 countries in Europe and Central Asia. The most frequently observed species were: 1. Common Starling, 2. Chaffinch, 3. Common Coot. All of these people (both adults and children) enjoyed watching the fascinating migration of 4,3 million birds heading to their wintering grounds in the South.
At the Batumi Raptor Count, we had a great weekend and contributed 90,756 migrating birds to the tally. For a change, we did not only count raptors and storks and tried to record all migrating birds, but still raptors made the bulk of the flight. Our top three was Steppe Buzzard (a staggering 47,639 were seen on 4/10 from station 2 Shuamta), Barn Swallow (6,531 from station 1 on 4/10) and Black Kite (1,171 from station 1 on 4/10).
The goals of EuroBirdwatch are to bring people in touch with birds, and to show them the wonders of bird migration and the necessity of bird conservation. Because it is of the utmost importance to tell people about the dangers our migratory birds are facing. With these events the nature conservation organizations encourage people of all ages to go out, observe, explore and enjoy birds. The data of bird observations was collected in each country and forwarded to the European Centre; this year Vogelbescherming Nederland (VBN), BirdLife in the Netherlands.
The sheer numbers of birds recorded during this EuroBirdwatch clearly show that bird migration is an awesome phenomenon and drives home the point that birds and their migratory routes and stopover sites need to be protected.
For further information on the EuroBirdwatch visit: www.eurobirdwatch.eu.