1,000,000 raptors — already!
1000000. The station 1 team. Photo by Eva Drukker.
WE HAVE REACHED A MILLION BIRDS! Who would have thought that we would get there so soon? This year we reached it ten days earlier than in any other season — and exactly halfway the count!
It was a day full of suspense. We only needed a little over 10.000 more birds. We extracted every single one of them out of the bright blue sky. Whether we would reach the milestone remained uncertain until the very last minutes of the count. It turned into a real countdown: 5,000 birds to go… 700… and then suddenly just 140. Fifteen minutes before the end of the count, we checked the numbers, and there it was: over one million raptors. What a day. What a season. And what is next? Have all the birds now passed already? Two million birds? Who knows what the bottleneck still has in store for us?
The Station 2 team. Photo by Elien Hoekstra.
Of course, this achievement wouldn’t have been possible without so many people. A heartfelt thank you to all our counters — those on the ground with us and those supporting us from far away. To our wonderful Georgian host families, for their hospitality and warmth (and for the cheerful smiles of one of our youngest supporters, Noe, our host family’s newborn baby). And finally, a big thanks to Kite Optics for equipping our counters and trainees with binoculars and scopes, and for sponsoring our annual t-shirts.
We’re grateful to Kite Optics for supporting the Batumi Raptor Count with high-quality optical equipment. As part of their sponsorship, Kite offers a 10% discount on all webshop orders using the code BRC2500KT at checkout.
A juvenile Lesser Spotted Eagle showing off its pristine plumage. Photo by Sander Bruylants.
A juvenile Honey Buzzard taking off from Station 2’s favorite perch. Photo by Eduardo Campos Wals.