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Jasper was part of the BRC team from 2011 to 2017, first as a count coordinator and later as the organisation's chairman, a role he held until the end of 2015. He led the publication of BRC's autumn count data as an open dataset, making the project's migration records openly accessible to other researchers.
We review Swarovski Optik's new FieldPro package, as Jasper Wehrmann, Folkert de Boer and Johannes Jansen share their thoughts on the redesigned EL binoculars they've been using this season.
The 9th season of Batumi Raptor Count has reached the halfway point! Once again we're witnessing a rush of raptor migration, growing enthusiasm for raptor identification, and no shortage of surprises.
It was a calm start, yes, totally calm. Only few birds passed the stations putting us in disbelief about migration ways but never doubt the birds, they will certainly come.
Reaching the average peak around 3 Sep we usually have good numbers already in August. Until 25 Aug we count in average a proportion of 600 and more Montagu's Harrier / MonPalHen.
From 9th to 11th June we met with representatives from several major soaring bird migration bottlenecks of the western palearctic in Chalets d’Irati-Larrau/Lorraine, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
We've launched a refreshed, mobile-friendly website that's easier to navigate. This issue covers a word from our new chairman, BRC membership, the 2015 Raptor Migration Report, and our 2016 birdwatching tours.
BRC continued its monitoring work with another successful season studying the raptor migration in the Batumi bottleneck. In autumn 2015 we managed to count a total of 1.029.478 raptors without double counts!
After another very successful season in 2015, the volunteers of BRC only had a couple of weeks to recuperate, and while 2016 is still young, the preparations for the count of autumn 2016 are already in full swing.
Join us as member to become integral part of BRC. We'd like to create closer ties with you throughout the year, and with your help continue our raptor conservation efforts in Batumi.
After 7 weeks of counting in autumn 2015 we reached again the season total of 1 million raptors! Steppe Buzzard migration finally kicked off and we counted over 120 000 birds during 3rd, 4th and 5th of October.
The first 3 weeks of raptor migration counting in Batumi are over and we can already say that the start of this season was a big surprise.
Talk by Oliver Reville: Addressing illegal hunting at Batumi through education and awareness raising.
Spanish talk on migration spectacle of Batumi, in Murcia, Spain. Attend and listen to the talk of Blanca Perez, sharing her experience as a count coordinator in 2014!
The Georgian Black Sea coast is a walhalla for birders, but also ecologists and other researchers are increasingly interested to visit the area.
On 2nd October 2014 our counting team witnessed the largest passage of raptors ever seen outside of the Panamerican Flyway and counted 264.891 raptors in a single day!
On September 18th and 19th a small group of birders from the BRC visited the Chorokhi delta for birding. In total, we observed 99 species, including some birds in the hand at the ringing station.
About half of the world’s shorebird populations are in decline, and the rate of habitat loss is worse than ever before.
With the experiences from 6 years counting raptors at Batumi we decided to discuss the protocol, our insights into the migration flow at the bottleneck and the integration of new ideas.
The first day of spring count in Batumi was dominated by the migration of Steppe Buzzards and Black Kites. In the morning we saw them flying close to the mountains and were afraid of a long day with distance observations only.
The BRC is conducting its first spring count in Batumi from 01. April till 31. May and invites everybody who is keen to join the migration count.
The BRC has a new program board, now functioning within Bird Conservation Georgia. We welcome Folkert de Boer and Siranush Tumanyan as new members, and a few leave us.
This year’s autumn migration season has been underway for 21 days now, and so far everything points to another great experience for all participants.
The first hours of counting migratory raptors at Batumi has started. Honey Buzzards, Harriers and Bee-eaters have already passed the stations.
Few days ago on August 30th we were happy to report to you our all time record of 99,000 Honey Buzzards passing our observatories.
It is our pleasure to have received 3 Swarvovision binoculars and 3 scopes with alu and carbon tripods for the autumn count 2012.