Batumi Birdwatching Festival 2018

3 – 8 september 2018 – venue: Oasis Hotel – Chakvi – Georgia

We would like to invite all of you to the annual Batumi Birding festival, taking place the first week of September this year.

The full seven-day program will encompass a diversity of activities, all related to the study and conservation of the migration spectacle. You are welcome to join the daily excursions. You will have the option to choose between watching the raptors at our watch sites, visit other birding hotspots in the region or one of the national parks of the region, attend trapping demonstrations or pay a cultural visit to the region. We aim to attract a broad international public of birdwatchers, conservationists and eco-tourists as well as a large part of both the local population and regional peers. With this event, we want to highlight all aspects of our project, particularly the tourism potential.

We have a spectacular line-up for the evening lectures this year, with specialists from USA, UK and Denmark giving a lecture:

• WILLIAM CLARK (USA): author of several raptor books and raptor identification specialist, will talk about raptor migration, eagles around the world and his eagle quest.
• DAVID LINDO aka the Urban Birder (UK): author and celebrity, will talk about urban birding, raptors in urban environments and his new book
• LUKE TILLER: tour guide and raptor migration addict, will talk about raptor migration (monitoring) all over the USA
• BRC team: will present the daily count results, and an overview of results of the work BRC has done so far.

A detailed program will be published soon.

Participation to the daily excursions and the evening lectures is free of charge, subscribing is advised. A donation towards BRC is of course appreciated, but not obligatory. For the last evening celebration diner, a small payment will be asked. This event is financed by the Department of Tourism Adjara, we are very grateful for their support.

If you would like to show your interest for this event, or if you have questions, feel free to contact johannes.jansen@batumiraptorcount.org.

The final preparations for the upcoming Autumn Count are in full swing. Do you want to read up on what could be ahead of us this season? Then read our annual BRC Magazine of 2017, with a summary of last year's season and the most complete overview of our activities in the Batumi bottleneck. It is chock full of photos and stories to remind you of the spectacular migration that will start again in a few weeks.

The contributions of our BRC Members are critical in making our monitoring and conservation work possible, as we are a 100% volunteer-based organization. Do you want to support our work with a Membership? Then you will get early access to the annual BRC Magazine. For more information about the membership, click the button below.

Volunteer as raptor counter

Due to recent cancellations we again have some free counter positions available. Are you inspired after reading the magazine? Don't hesitate to apply for a volunteer position.

Magazine 2017

Download

Since 2008, in a decade of counts, over 300 volunteers have participated in the annual Batumi Raptor Count. This year, the 11th count is held, which runs from August 17th until October 16th of 2018. Despite the positive stories you may have heard from volunteers or visitors, participation in the count or coming as a visitor is not without some drawbacks! In the spirit of transparency, we have listed the most frequently encountered problems participants face during and after their stay.

1. Watching raptors won’t ever be the same again

You could be lucky enough to see an Imperial Eagle flying 20 meters past the station. Maybe you can even hear the wind move through its feathers. Photo by John Wright.

Those fantastic days of raptor migration in your home country or in other migration hotspots? They will forever pale in comparison with what you experience in the Batumi bottleneck. Every single Honey Buzzard you see will bring back the good memories of seeing 50,000+ migrate on a single day; every harrier will remind you of the sun rising in a sky scattered with Marsh, Montagu’s and Pallid harriers; every eagle… well, you get the point. By participating, you risk becoming forever spoiled with experiencing migration of more than a million birds and around 30 species in a period of only 2 months.

A kettle of Honey Buzzards disappearing in the clouds, a regular sight in the Batumi bottleneck. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.

2. Painful fingers

At BRC we like to count birds so much, we count them one at a time! Our trusty clickers keep track of the numbers, while the most important thing counters have to do is move their fingers at the pace of birds crossing the transect line. A calm but continuous click-click-click-click is the resulting background sound throughout the day… That is until migration breaks loose and the calm clicking turns into a frenzy of rattling counters all over the station. The upshot? You will physically be able to feel the intensity of migration. The downside? Your fingers will end up hurting and we cannot guarantee you won’t develop temporary RSI-like symptoms. Imagine clicking streams of birds like in the video below, but for hours on end on all sides of the stations:

Video by Elien Hoekstra

3. We don't count everything

At BRC we have made the decision to focus on a few key species for the bottleneck. Our aim is to count those species really well, instead of counting all species badly. These tens of thousands of Bee-Eaters flying by? All these Hobbies, Common and Lesser Kestrels? These Long-legged Buzzards or Alpine Swifts? Painful, maybe, but you will just have to enjoy them. Instead, we’ll keep you busy identifying, sexing and ageing our target species at a rapid pace. This should provide plenty of entertainment and learning experience for even the most hardcore of counters.

Yeah, you'll just have to enjoy those. Photo by Romain Riols.

A publication about the recent trends in abundance and migration timing of juveniles and non-juveniles from 10 years of standardized counts is currently under review. Keep an eye out on our website or Facebook page for an announcement when it has been published.

4. (Almost) Every day is the same

Clicking these clickers, scanning the sky through the binoculars and identifying species by scope. All. Day. Long. Photo by Martha Mutiso.

Every single day, except for the one day a week in which you have a day off, will look like this: You wake up an hour before sunrise, prepare your stuff and have breakfast. A delicious lunch prepared by the host families will be waiting for you to take to the station. Then, from sunrise until 2 hours before sunset you will be counting birds in a standardized fashion, independent of weather conditions. When you return to the guesthouse, tired but satisfied, families will provide a dinner full of Georgian delicacies, after which you’re free to do as you like.

Doing the same thing every day ensures we run a smooth count, even if tens of thousands of Honey Buzzards pass by. Video by Triin Kaasiku.

All we can offer to break the daily slur, besides the birds you’ll be seeing, is 1 day off per week in which you can explore the region (or sleep), a very international group of like-minded birders from all experience levels, a pleasant atmosphere, regular evening presentations to get to know the raptor species and each other, drinks in the Green Cafe and the occasional team visits to the nearby beach.

5. You may come back again… and again…

Sunrise from station 1. The calm before the storm in a landscape you won't quickly forget. Photo by Triin Kaasiku.

The birds, the people, the country, the food, there are plenty of reasons to come back one more time. And many participants do come back as counter or coordinator, time and again, despite the hardships described above. It is quite likely you will plan to come again next autumn the moment you have ended your stay and leave Georgia for your home country. Consider this before you plan to come only once.

So what?

If after reading this you still think you want to participate, you can read more and apply here . But… you have been warned!

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This blog originally appeared on the website of OSME, the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia.