For seventeen years, Batumi Raptor Count has tracked the legendary autumn raptor migration through the Batumi Bottleneck. Now, our first full study of spring migration along this flyway has been published open access in Ardea.
Student interest in Batumi's raptor migration has grown so much that our Research Coordinator can barely keep up. Here's an overview of the research currently underway at BRC.
The third and final spring count gave us beautiful snow-covered surroundings and raptors in perfect light, we witnessed the return of birds and spring.
The 3rd pilot Spring Count is already halfway through, we have been counting for one and a half months and have already counted 400k raptors this season.
In 2019 and 2020 we carried out the first and second spring pilot counts in the Batumi bottleneck, revealing a very different composition of raptor migration compared to autumn. We're looking for volunteers to join us for the third and final spring count in 2022.
The most recent autumn issue of the Sandgrouse, published by OSME, contains a short paper describing preliminary results of Black Kites obtained during the two BRC spring counts conducted so far.
This year the third pilot spring count was supposed to be conducted. Sadly, after many considerations, we hereby announce that the count has officially been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has ground daily life to a halt for many of us, bird migration of course continued and so did our team of spring counters in Batumi.
It has been an unavoidable topic in recent weeks and right now it has also become something that the BRC feels a need to act upon: the COVID-19 virus.
After 11 years of autumn counts it was time for something completely different. This spring a group of 13 enthusiastic counters monitored the Batumi spring migration from March 21st until May 31st.
During a visit to the Chorokhi Delta, the BRC spring count team spotted a Black-winged Kite, only the second record for Georgia and a wonderful reward after a day of otherwise quiet birding.
Where to start? Well, let's start with the beginning of the day: unlike in autumn, where you are woken up by just the sound of the local rooster calling, in spring he's joined by a choir of feathered friends.
Spring migration in Batumi? We would love to show you what that looks like, but we don’t really know. All we know for certain is that birds will be going in the opposite direction, somewhat like in the video below. But how many?
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.
After more than two weeks of raptor counting, we headed to Chorokhi Delta for an early morning of passerine migration watching, and enjoyed a good variety of species despite the modest numbers.