In 2012 BRC implemented various education activities around environment and nature for various age-groups. This environmental education program stems out of activities conducted by the BRC in Adjaria, Georgia in previous years.
We kindly invite all members to attend the BRC General Meeting 2012, taking place in Ghent, Belgium, from the 7th to the 9th of December.
With a gift from Natuurpunt Vogelwerkgroep and many individual donations, including a major gift from Laurens Vogelaers, we have secured our budget until the end of 2012.
Over the past two weeks you elected a new Board, which will soon start preparations for a splendid 2013 edition of BRC.
It's time to vote for the 2013 BRC Board. Members are invited to cast their vote for President, Secretary, Treasurer and Board Member before the end of October.
During the festival, the Dutch journalist Roel Pauw visited our project. He recorded a compilation of the diverse aspects of BRC and this was broadcasted last Sunday on the Dutch radio-station Vara for the program 'Vroege Vogels'.
To cope with our rapid growth and increase in activities, we are constantly looking for additional funding opportunities.
After we posted about the first Shikra record of BRC on September 16th, we received several comments about the identification of this challenging accipiter.
From 27th until the 30th of september, the Rufford small grants recipients conference was held in Tsaghkhadzor, Armenia.
On the 23rd of September two Finnish volunteers of BRC had a day off exploring the bird diversity of Chorokhi delta.
Just after his arrival in Batumi, Brecht Verhelst discovered the first putative Shikra (Accipiter badius) ever for the BRC.
Since the start of the count we have seen a lot of Marsh Harriers. At least 16 of them were adult males of the rare dark morph. In former years only a handful of dark birds 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.
The unique convergence of migratory raptors in Georgia is strongly shaped by the weather conditions in the region, something the BRC team has long observed firsthand.
This week, three board members are representing the BRC at the European Conference for Conservation Biology in Glasgow, Scotland.
Today the first volunteers, assisted by our coordinators, started the autumn 2012 count. Just a few hours in, they had already reported the season's first juvenile Pallid Harrier, on a very rainy day!
The British Bird Fair is happening this weekend and BRC is pleased to be given the opportunity to deliver a talk there. Danny Heptinstall will be presenting the monitoring and conservation work of BRC at 12.10 on Friday the 17th.
It is our pleasure to have received 3 Swarvovision binoculars and 3 scopes with alu and carbon tripods for the autumn count 2012.
On the 1st of May 2012, White-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus) was observed near the Chorokhi delta (just south of Batumi) by Roland Schlegel, a German birder enjoying our homestays.
There are not many decent 12X binoculars on the market. Most are bulky in the hand, have a dark image, and have a field of view akin to viewing birds through a pair of toilet paper tubes. But Swarovski's entry is a bit different.