Autumn Report 2019

by Bart Hoekstra

The 12th Batumi Raptor Count launched officially on the 12th of August 2019. We started the count with 8 volunteer counters/coordinators and ultimately 60 volunteers from 18 nationalities, including a group of 7 young Georgian falconers, joined our monitoring efforts over the course of 70 days.

Not only did we start earlier, we also used the brand new station 1 for the first time. The development of this new observatory was initiated by the Department of Tourism and Resorts of Adjara, funded by the Ministry of Finance and we were glad to be involved in the design and implementation. There are still a few changes to be made to improve the station for both visitors and counters, but this surely is a major milestone for making birdwatching more accessible, and guarantees the future use of this site for raptor watching purposes.

We started the count 5 days earlier than in previous years, to improve our ability to detect phenological changes of migrants. Our experience in the past 11 years of monitoring has shown that in some years we miss some migrants before the count would start on the 17th, while ideally we would start the count more consistently with days of almost no migration at all. We hope to achieve this by extending our count season by 5 days at the beginning. Similarly, this is the first year we have officially extended the count by 5 days, because our recent trend analysis has shown we can further improve our monitoring quality for Short-toed Eagles if we count for a little longer.

The start of our first extended monitoring period right away showed why doing so is worthwhile. Had we started the count on the 17th, it would have been the best season start ever, as we already counted over 2000 raptors that day. Not only raptor numbers were fairly high already, so was the diversity of species, with the first Hen Harrier showing up already on the 17th as well, and another the day after. With the calm mid-August weather, thick cloud cover and the occasional drizzle, Swift migration was spectacular as they were flying close over our heads and we could easily hear their wings cut through the thick air. Nothing, however, could prepare us for the incredible migration of Dragonflies we experienced on the first 2 days of the count. All over the bottleneck, high and low, these insects were zig-zagging upwards and then — once they had gained enough altitude — all followed a southwesterly trajectory south. A few naked-eye transect counts resulted in an average of 100 dragonflies passing per minute across a 10 meter transect. As this seemed to occur everywhere in the bottleneck, many hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of these insects must have passed through these days, blanketing the skies in layer upon layer of dragonflies. It was truly a sight to behold!

The first weeks of the counts are always dominated by Honey Buzzard migration and this year was no different with their migration occurring a bit ahead of schedule. On August 22nd we had the first 10.000+ HBs day, after which the species would peak on August 26th already with 75.000 migrants counted. In the end we have counted 513.799 Honey Buzzards this season, slightly below our ~530.000 season average. On August 24th, besides counting almost 42.000 HBs, we also experienced the best day of Harrier migration in the season. Although many birds had to remain unidentified due to the sheer intensity of migration, we tallied over 600 Montagu's Harriers and almost 900 ‘MonPalHen’ ringtail Harriers that day.

As usual, the last days of August and the first of September are the best to observe migration of Turtle Doves. In the past we have had a few ‘unofficial’ records of migrating Oriental Turtle Doves amongst those, so we have decided to monitor this species properly starting this year. August 22nd brought the first of this newly monitored species: an OTD was found in a flock of teensy-looking European Turtle Doves, passing right in between the two stations. As there is no appreciable difference in size between European TDs in a flock (i.e. you would not be able to agree on which bird is biggest), the sudden presence of a TD in the flock that is certainly much (~30%) bigger, indicates one should have a careful look at the flock. The darker appearance and jizz of a Stock Dove are supportive of the identification of OTD. Without direct comparison with other TDs in a flock, e.g. if a single bird is seen, it is probably impossible to identify the species in the bottleneck without really detailed photos. We are planning to write a short note on these observations, as we are aware that these sightings are quite unexpected. In the end we found a total of 7 Oriental Turtle Doves this season.

Besides Honey Buzzards, numbers of Black Kites were already very high at the end of August. On the 28th of August we had already counted 12.500 migrants, roughly 5 times more than on average by that time and already 5000 more than in 2018 when they migrated very early as well. Additionally, we heard from Daniel Berkowic that his tracked Black Kites were on the move indeed ~1 week earlier than in other years, which matched exactly with what we were seeing. After a record-breaking number of Black Kites were counted during spring, we were hopeful numbers would be very good this Autumn as well.

Luckily, as the season progressed, it became more and more clear this was indeed the case. Although no day records were set this season, with just a ‘meagre’ day maximum of 20.710 on the 16th of September (our 7th best day ever), the pace of migration was consistently high and lead up to the incredible total of 239.000 Black Kites this season. It is hard to imagine that when BRC began monitoring the bottleneck, just over a decade ago, counts of BKs were still well below 100.000 in a season (Figure 1). The species has more than doubled in number in just 12 years of monitoring!

The start of September marks the start of the most species-diverse period of migration in Batumi. Unsurprisingly, this is the time of the Batumi Bird Festival, bringing many visitors to the watchpoints and giving us the opportunity to share our count results. Like last year, at that time we were also joined by a group of Georgian falconers and local supervisors who participated in the count and took part in the Bird Festival activities. We hope that such programmes, organised together with the local branch of Fauna & Flora International, will show the local youngsters the importance of monitoring and inspire them to expand their knowledge of raptor identification, migration and conservation. The fact that half of the boys from last year’s camp returned this year, shows it’s already happening.

The mornings during the Bird Festival were comparatively slow for that time of the year. This period is usually when we expect to see good migration of Montagu’s Harriers, but this year the species almost disappeared from the bottleneck after the peak on August 24th. Migrating Turtle Doves, Rollers and Marsh Harriers kept our eyes fixed to the skies, but we were a little disappointed to have so few MonPalHen at this time in the season. The resulting lack of adrenaline in the mornings was at least made up for by some early eagles in the afternoons, such as the second earliest Imperial Eagle on August 29th, occasional Steppe and Lesser Spotted Eagles and very early Greater Spotteds. Meanwhile Crested Honey Buzzards could be found in streams of European Honey Buzzards, Egyptian Vultures and Ospreys pass at their own leisure, all the while turning heads of many counters and tourists. Add to that the increasing species diversity and very high proportions of Black Kites amongst the streams of Honey Buzzards and there was plenty on offer to challenge absolutely everyone on station. Especially September 10th was a difficult day, when messy streams in between the stations kept counters busy from the first till the last second of the count, despite comparatively ‘few’ birds (about 25.000 raptors). On some days lunch had to be skipped… The day after we passed both the 500.000 HBs and the 100.000 Black Kites milestones this season.

Despite quite a few days with adverse conditions for migration (rain showers, strong winds), migration kept going strong in the middle of September. At any point in time Black Kites were being counted somewhere around both stations, Booted Eagles were following the coastal highway and a continuous passage of Marsh Harriers kept everyone’s eyes fixed to the skies. The 14th marked the start of Steppe Buzzard migration with 3300 birds counted by station 2 and on the 18th we could log the first Common Cranes for the season. Contrary to 2018, Booted Eagle numbers were consistently high at this point in the season, which would lead up to another more-or-less normal year again for this species.

A little earlier than expected we already had the first big eagle day on the 19th of September. After a very slow start to the day and no clouds over the mountains to push the birds towards the coast, we had low expectations for the rest of the day. That all changed mid-afternoon when clouds started to develop rapidly. In a mere few hours, both stations combined counted 807 large Eagles, with already fairly high numbers of Greater Spotteds. The next day brought far less eagles, but a long-desired new species to the bottleneck. Inside the streams of Black Kites and large Eagles west of Station 1 was a much smaller, almost fluttery, bird: a Black-winged Kite! After the spring counters found one earlier this year, this constitutes the 3rd record for the country and the first one for the BRC autumn counts. With the recent expansion of this species in the south, we are looking forward to record more in upcoming years. The following days were relatively uneventful, but migration showed no sign of stopping and passing the one million raptors mark started to come within reach. The manageable pace of migration even let us find a few color-ringed Eagles.

This year BRC started a new educational project involving schools, teachers and Georgian conservationists. Although the Batumi Raptor Count has been monitoring the autumn migration for the last 12 years, the project mostly reaches the villages which are close to the count stations. That is why we believe that an educational project is needed to reach the villages that are further away, particularly those where intense illegal hunting has been documented before.

With previous funding from the British Birds Charitable Trust, we could host an American Peace Corps volunteer with us in 2018. She prepared several lessons for classes with children of different ages at the school in Sakhalvasho and the reactions were very positive. This really showed us that we should try and scale up this work and make an educational program that can be used by several schools in the area. However, unlike the previous time, we want this program to be largely conceptualized through input and involvement of local teachers and conservationists. In so doing we believe the content and form of our new project will fit better with the perceptions and experiences of local youths. We already started in September 2019, when we organized two workshops in which we introduced our project to teachers from different villages in the Kobuleti municipality. We also evaluated existing educational materials with regard to birds and biodiversity and invited them over to visit the newly constructed bird observatory station in Sakhalvasho. Finally, we found 19 teachers who are very eager to continue working with us and who want to use the soon to be developed materials in their classes.

The aim of the project is to create some new educational material for teachers and to make workshops to show them the importance of the conservation of the nature in Georgia. We are very happy that the project is being supported by IJsvogelfonds and the British Birds Charitable Trust.

Back to the count

Except for Harriers, Black Kites, small Falcons and Sparrowhawks, most raptors in the Batumi bottleneck tend not to migrate on days with intense rain, resulting in a ‘build-up’ of birds in the north. So in seasons with little or no rain, like in 2018, migration is much more gradual than in others. As Steppe Buzzards are expected to peak at the end of September or the beginning of October, a rainy day on the 28th of September is a sign for an interesting day ahead when rains finally stop. Little did we know what we were in for… 

On the morning of the 29th, when the rains finally stopped, counters at station 2 quickly realised they were in for a treat. Steppe Buzzards had an ‘en masse’ appearance from the bottom of the valleys, circling around like (flying) ants, and clearly arriving in full force. For the rest of the day, a stream of almost 100% SBs was pounding station 2's east, tallying up to a ‘very reasonable’ 84.000 individuals by the end of the day. Interspersed were good numbers of eagles already, but looking to the west — the sector of station 1 — it was clear something entirely different was going on there. While station 1 counted far lower numbers of Steppe Buzzards (still a respectable 28.000) that day, eagles more than made up for it. By the end of the day they had counted an incredible 1734 large eagle sp., 452 Lesser Spotteds, 19 Greater Spotteds, 15 Steppe Eagles and 460 Short-toed Eagles. With a total of 3071 birds out of a total of over 125.887, it was our second highest ever day count of large Eagles.

Just one ‘big day’ away from passing the million, hopes were high for good Steppe Buzzard migration the next day. Well, they delivered. Despite the cloudless blue skies, a massive stream in the far east from sunrise onwards was enough to count the last few 10.000s of raptors needed to pass the million in just a few hours. Interspersed, but mostly much closer to station 2 were — once again — over 1600 large eagles. Amongst those were also high numbers of Short-toed Eagles, giving a good ‘push’ to what would become the best year for the species so far with 2082 migrants counted. On the 29th and 30th of September combined, more than 5100 large eagles passed through the bottleneck. Only once before (October 2nd, 2014) have we counted more eagles in such a short period of time…

The following days could best be described as ‘the silence after the storm’, so we were thankful the EuroBirdwatch was scheduled to add some variety to our daily rhythm. However, songbirds which had been flying numerously throughout the season, failed to perform on the 5th and 6th of October. Some eagles, a nice cinnamon-type Crested Honey Buzzard and a dense flock of 22 Arctic Skua over the Black Sea were the clear EuroBirdwatch highlights for this year.

Heavy rains on the morning of the 9th were followed by an enjoyable afternoon of Common Crane-spotting, which resulted in a nice total of 74 birds, a very high number for the bottleneck during our official monitoring period. That same night counters sleeping with open windows could be woken up by the ‘grus grus’ calls throughout the night, when probably hundreds if not a few thousand Cranes crossed low over the village. With another good day for Common Cranes on the 16th (81 birds), this ended up our best season yet for this species, even when excluding the birds counted on the 5 extra days this season.

On the 10th of October migration started to pick up again, with slow and steady — but enjoyable! — passage of large Eagles in the days that followed. Around that time in the season the Eagles species composition switched from mostly Lesser Spotted to mostly Greater Spotteds, Steppe Eagles and a few Imperials, a very interesting period to practice your identification skills. Surprisingly enough, at this time in the season there are almost no tourists, even though the quality of observation is probably higher than at any other point in the season.

On October 13th Eagle diversity peaked when no less than 5 large Eagle species could be seen from station 2: the usual suspects (LSE, GSE, Steppe Eagles and Short-toeds), 5 Imperial Eagles and an immature Golden Eagle. The latter is a surprisingly rare record in the bottleneck, with the last birds recorded during our 2014 count. After rain on the 12th, a great day on the 13th, usually a ‘slow’ day is next, so only logically half our team decided to take a day off. But then… Well, we will let the Trektellen comments do the talking:

Despite the fact that the weather was not looking very promising for proper migration conditions, the day turned out to be quite enjoyable. With station 2 being slightly understaffed and with the eagle migration in full swing. We were dealing with the breadcrumbs that fell off the birdfeeder. If those breadcrumbs contain adult Imperial Eagle together with (it's?) juvenile, a Griffon Vulture, a White-tailed Eagle, Cranes and another possible Golden Eagle, then being a ground dweller is not so bad after all.
~ Station 1

Very slow morning. A Krüper's Nuthatch posed beautifully on top of a bush on station and we prematurely called it the highlight of the day. Many people took a day off expecting nothing but some annoying Stinky Bugs. They should have known better. This is Batumi!!! After a few hours an overhead eagle-catwalk unfolded and we could hardly ‘wow’ enough to give appropriate appreciation for every close encounter. Recordbreaking 70 Steppe Eagles (former day-record was 61), multiple juvenile Imperials, 2 adult Imperials, 2 White-Tailed Eagles, a Griffon Vulture, Greater Spotted Eagles, Long-Legged Buzzard, Jean Leblancs (Short-toed Eagles, red.)... The quality of today's observations will be very difficult to top. What. A. Day!!
~ Station 2

On October 16th, which used to be the last day of the count, a sudden appearance of a bank of sea fog in the bottleneck was followed by a similarly unexpected appearance of both a juvenile Cinereous Vulture and an adult male Crested Honey Buzzard. The vulture was only our sixth record for the species and the Crested was the latest one ever, with the previous latest on October 11th, 2018. 

Except for a few highlights, such as a very late Egyptian Vulture on the 19th, increasing numbers of Long-legged Buzzards and — of course — great views of the few eagles still passing, the final 5 days of the count were quite uneventful. However slow in terms of numbers, with a fantastic team so finely attuned to each other, the daily rhythm of migration and the count, true boredom ceases to exist and the slow days continue to fly past. Meanwhile, music is playing from the stations, birds are observed with even more intense appreciation and plans for future visits are made. On the 21st of October, after symbolically passing the 300.000 Steppe Buzzards mark that same day, we finished the count for 2019.

Ultimately, we finished the first officially extended season with — amongst many other highlights — record-shattering numbers of Black Kites, Short-toed Eagles and Common Cranes, and some of the biggest days for large Eagles we have ever recorded. During the 12th edition of the Batumi Raptor Count we have counted 1.138.915 raptors in 1462 hours (both stations combined). None of this would have been possible without the work of all volunteers involved in the project to whom we owe a big thanks! We are also very grateful for all the other people that continue to support us and make this project possible: our host families with their hospitality and delicious meals; the tourism department of Batumi; our members, donors and sponsors for their financial support; Frits Hoogeveen for donating dozens of new multibank clickers; Gerard Troost and www.trektellen.nl.

GAUMARJOS to all of you!

More from the 2019 season

• Half Season Report 2019 on the BRC blog by coordinators Triin Kaasiku & Pia Fetting

• Population trends from 8 years of BRC Autumn Counts published during the 2019 season.

• Photo report from the entire 2019 season by coordinator Bart Hoekstra

• Batumi Crossroads on the Hawk Mountain blog by Jean-François Therrien

• Dale Forbes from Swarovski Optik on his recent visit to the bottleneck:

  • Over one million raptors streaming by

  • How to count 1 million raptors

  • Conservation challenges in the Batumi bottleneck

To continue monitoring migration, our education and conservation programmes in the Batumi bottleneck, we rely on the support of many volunteers, our members and donators. Want to support our work?

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