Autumn Report 2022

by Erik Jansen & Leo Akhmeteli

The 14th Batumi Raptor Count launched on the 12th of August 2022. We started this season with a small team of 7 counters/coordinators. In the end we hosted 42 volunteers from various parts of the world over the course of our 2,5 month long count.  

When planning and starting the count, we hoped to have reached the tail-end of COVID-19. Unfortunately, we still experienced some issues related to a few positive tests in the village. However, thanks to great management by our coordinators and experience from the 2021 count season, the situation remained under control and the count was a go!

On the 12th of August our counters were ready for the season, and in the early morning we installed ourselves on the stations; let the birds come! However, the very first thing most people were enthusiastic about was in fact not a feathered animal… It was more so the newly installed fresh water tap on our main Station in Sakhalvasho! Huge thanks to the Batumi Tourism Department. Dipping your head under running water can literally make your day. Especially in early August when the days are long and very - very - hot! This year, however, the temperatures were less extreme than anticipated. We were treated to several days with overcast weather which significantly reduced temperatures on station. With cooled heads and our gear ready, we saw the first signs of migration in the Batumi bottleneck as three Rollers flew past our station on the first official day of the count.

By now, we know that the first days of the season are generally slow in terms of migration, which is a good thing because it means that we started on time and did not miss any early migrants. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the first few Honey-buzzards, Black Storks, and an early Lesser Spotted Eagle passing our stations. These first birds are always special and exciting! Having this taste of migration only makes you want to see more, so we were eagerly waiting for other raptors to arrive. However, the waiting took long. Very long. For the first two weeks we didn’t notice more than a couple dozen of raptors flying south a day.

The slower pace of migration did allow us to pick out some rather unusual birds for the bottleneck. One week into the count, on August 19th, we found a Long-tailed Skua flying in between the stations. While this species is not a protocol species, we were excited to see it as it is a very rare species in Georgia with only a handful of claims. Additionally, we enjoyed the passerines, such as shrikes and an attention-seeking Short-toed Lark, using our stations as stop-over sites. Clearly, there was no lack of entertainment, yet the intensity of migration was still far from expected.

Fast forward to the second week of the count. By this time we usually start to see the numbers of Honey-buzzards and Montagu’s Harriers building up. It turned out, this year was going to be anything but an ‘usual’ season. As it happened our numbers remained low - of basically all species - and we could only assume a definite delay in migration. While making up theories causing this delay makes for good convo-grease on station, some of us were getting slightly worried. After analysis, this year’s August numbers show a clear delay compared to the previous two years and our long-term average. Of course this does not mean that we weren’t seeing any birds at all! We thoroughly enjoyed the first Egyptian Vultures passing through the bottleneck, an Eleonora's Falcon paid a brief visit to station 1 on August 26th (only the 6th record for BRC), and two days later Station 2 already recorded the first Crested Honey-buzzard of the season!  Not bad at all! Meanwhile, we witnessed several large flocks of White Storks making their way through the bottleneck during the first weeks of the count! This season we ended up counting 1,313 White Storks, more than double from what we count during most years! Occasional close views of several Long-legged Buzzards and a local juvenile Goshawk definitely also helped to brighten up the days.

With the last days of August arriving, we finally started to see proper Honey-buzzard migration! We quickly went from a couple of hundred, to a few thousand, to 16,500 Honey-buzzards on the 31st of August. What a relief! While in other years we would already be seeing tens of thousands on these very same dates, our counters weren’t any less happy to finally get that clicking going.

Meanwhile, looking through your binoculars or scope was not without risk. You were almost guaranteed to be “photobombed” by Bee-Eaters, Common Swifts, or perhaps an occasional  Alpine Swift. In addition to the Honey-buzzards, the number of ringtail harriers passing through the bottleneck - particularly Montagu’s Harriers - were slowly but steadily increasing. On August 31st we recorded over 300 ringtails flying past our stations! With also the Black Kites showing up in decent numbers, our counters could finally experience that real Batumi intense-migration feeling. We were ready for September!

Clearly, September was also ready for us. We started with a bang as on September 2nd a juvenile Lanner Falcon flew straight over Station 2, almost scratching the heads of our counters. WOW! This is only the 2nd record for BRC! This record, together with over 2000 ringtail harriers on September 3rd, showed us that migration was really kicking in!

During the first week of September the weather proved to be highly unpredictable. Unpredictable weather during the count usually means starting the day by checking the rain and looking for signs of migration from our guest house's balcony, then running up to station when the weather clears, and running down again when the thunderstorms arrive. These days can be hectic, but it’s always worth it! Before it was even fully dry, we would already often see dozens of Rollers and Harriers migrating low through the bottleneck. Take September 5th for example, a classic rainy day, yet we counted 222 Rollers and 165 European Turtle Doves! More interesting was the fact that the  Honey-buzzards could also be seen actively migrating through the rain. The internal clock of these completely soaked and strongly delayed Honey-buzzards was clearly telling them to hurry and that there was no more time to lose! These were the signs of intense migration we had been waiting for since the start of the season. And on these days, the rain could also, finally, wash away our doubts whether the birds were still going to come.

All was good, season saved, raptors are real, migration is real, Batumi is real, BRC is real. Back to reality: back to “normal” after some insane Honey-buzzard days with September 7th and 8th as the two main peak days, the latter day being the second-best day ever (147 121 individuals) for this species!

The days following this massive push of HBs were relatively calm, which doesn’t mean much in Batumi, as we still recorded (tens of) thousands of raptors coming through. While numbers of Honey-buzzards dwindled, our Black Kite friends started to pick up in numbers – exactly as expected. Black Kites have been steadily increasing by around 11% over the last couple of years, so after last year’s record-breaking total of 310 269, we were expecting – simply continuing that trend – to see some 345 000 kites this season. September 11th was the first day with more Black Kites than Honey-buzzards; a nice milestone after weeks of having Honey-buzzards as the most common raptor. The following days, however, did not see that trend continue, as daily numbers of Honey-buzzards and Black Kites remained about equal for some days. Rain thwarted heavy migration, but birds still kept pushing through. During rainy days, it is interesting to see which species keep flying and which don’t. Typically, harrier migration just keeps going, as they often actively flap their way south and are hence less dependent on sunny weather to create thermals. There were barely any Black Kites to be seen, though, whereas a significant number of Honey-buzzards kept flying: the urge to migrate was big for the latter species, whereas Black Kites are less “on a timer” than Honey-buzzards and generally migrate later in the season. Two days of rain had pushed back Black Kite migration, but when on September 15th the weather cleared up, these fork-tailed raptors exploded in our team’s face, counting an impressive 34 560 Black Kites – the second-best autumn day ever for this species in Batumi!

The days after would see a lull in migration as temperatures rose to insanely high figures. While most Honey-buzzards had already passed, and pressure for Black Kites was not full-on yet, all birds seemed to decide it was indeed too hot to migrate. Or would they have migrated further inland through the mountains? In the Batumi bottleneck we very much depend on the presence of clouds in the mountains, pushing the birds our way, effectively through the bottleneck. The data for Station 1, closer to the coast than Station 2, shows quite well what hot and cloudless days like September 17th and 18th do: only 208 and 267 birds, respectively, flew by Station 1. Thankfully, massive numbers of Bee-eaters and Sand Martins around our heads brightened up those otherwise slow and hot days.

The following days saw steady impressive migration of Black Kites, and numbers of Booted Eagles and Marsh Harriers finally started picking up. Both are species that normally come by in big numbers earlier in September, but like so many other species they too were quite late this year. The last two weeks of September, though, we had many days where both species would number well in the hundreds per day, with for example 545 Marsh Harriers on September 20th and 857 Booted Eagles on the 26th. While hundreds of the latter species rushed their way through the “Booted Highway” (Booted Eagles tend to fly rather fast and follow certain trajectories past our counting stations), the major highlight showed up in the form of yet another explosion of Black Kites: 40 472 individuals made their way through the bottleneck! Earlier in this report, September 15th was mentioned as the second-best autumn day for Black Kites. Well… That day was only second-best because of this September 26th record. Two absolutely amazing days for this species! On September 26th our team also identified 10 Crested Honey-buzzards, the European Honey-buzzard’s larger cousin. We would count a total of 45 individuals this year, which is more than ever, but it’s difficult to say whether the species is actually doing better, shifting its migration more westward, or whether our team has become better at correctly identifying them throughout the years.

One day later, on September 27th, we saw another 30 000+ kites (it’s almost getting normal now…), but the show was stolen by Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters! Late morning, one of our team members picked up an interesting bird call that was checked and perfectly matched the call of a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. This discovery was yelled over station and soon everyone was trying to pinpoint the origin of this call. After some time, someone picked the bird up; it was flying north right over our heads, but unfortunately ridiculously high. Most people managed to get a glimpse of the bird while it disappeared northbound. The team was pumped, as it was a lifer for many of us, but at the same time a little disappointed by the half-assed observation. We semi-jokingly said that the bird may come back, as it was clearly flying in the wrong direction. Just a half hour later, we heard the same call again, and this time the bird was flying much lower and as icing on the cake had brought 3 of its friends along! 4 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters were foraging right above our heads for at least a minute, after which they continued their southbound journey. This species was highly anticipated as it had never been recorded from station during any of the previous seasons. Cherries like this, on a day with some 37 500 raptors, really make Batumi such an amazing place!

While Lesser Spotted Eagles had been showing up in lower, yet acceptable, numbers than normal, we had to wait very long for the first Steppe Eagles of the season. It took them until September 28th, which is very late to record the first individual(s). While most species were very late this year, Steppe Eagles really gave us a rough time, showing up more than two weeks later than normal. Numbers of large eagles (Clanga and Aquila eagles) were generally low this season, probably due to their later timing. Since they are species that show up late in the season, we fear we simply missed many of them by finishing the season on October 21st. Who knows how many still flew over our unstaffed counting stations during the last week of October or even in November?

October came with a bang: after some good Marsh Harrier days in September, they decided to show up with more than a thousand on the first day of October! 1134 individuals were counted in just one day – incredible! Besides these harriers, Black Kites kept coming and added another 17 500 to this season’s total. Our projected season total of 345 000 started getting closer and closer. Some rain early October halted migration a bit, but it didn’t stop a dark morph Long-legged Buzzard from showing up at Station 2! This morph is very rarely recorded by our team.

As almost everything, Steppe Buzzards (our third and final “bulk species”) were also late this year, but October 4th really marked their arrival with more than 14 000 individuals recorded. The season would last for just another 2.5 weeks, and we were still rather far from the one million mark, so we were delighted to finally see good numbers of Steppe Buzzards arrive! While the million is not a target on its own, it serves a morale-boosting purpose for many of our counters, in particular for the ones that are with us the entire season. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to run our counts so smoothly, so here is a big thank you to 2022’s full-season counters! Michaëla, Joachim, Michaël, thank you!

More rain and very poor visibility played its part during the first week of October, so after the first good day of Steppe Buzzards, migration collapsed again, and we had to wait until the 8th before business got serious again. Quite serious! Around 80 000 raptors decided it was time to show up on the Global Big Day that we participated in. 38 387 Steppe Buzzards, 28 753 Black Kites, 637 Short-toed Eagles, 706 Lesser Spotted Eagles, 990 Marsh Harriers… Holy sh*t! Batumi!! The kites provided a new season record, with still (many?) to come; the Short-toed Eagles showed up in their highest daily number ever; and it was also one of the best days ever for Marsh Harriers!

The weather would keep fluctuating, making our days rather hit or miss. After some relatively slow days due to bad weather (first Common Cranes of the season though!), October 12th really delivered again. When we woke up, we were some 18 000 birds away from the million mark, and anticipation was high now that the weather seemed to have cleared up. Migration was slower than expected, though, and by noon we were still 10 000 birds away from our million party. Maybe party tomorrow? Nope. Put that beer back in the fridge! But Steppe Buzzards decided our party was on, by showing up with all of their friends, numbering 61 162 at the end of the day. Added in the mix were around 1500 large eagles, plus over 300 Short-toed Eagles. 3 Griffon Vultures and 3 adult Imperial Eagles were the VIPs for our one million party. We had to wait for it 15 days longer than a year before, but again more than 1 000 000 raptors found their way from their breeding grounds through the Batumi bottleneck south to their wintering grounds!

The million was solidified by another 53 352 birds on October 14th, when we also recorded a hybrid male Hen x Pallid Harrier, which was a first for our project as far as we could tell. Steppe Buzzards kept showing up in solid numbers for the remainder of the season, eventually stopping the count at 239 569, which is a relatively low figure for this species. Steppe Buzzards were not the only species that showed up in lower numbers than usual. The same was true for Honey-buzzards (480 645), all large eagle species (9024 combined), and in particular for ringtail harriers (5056 combined).

INTERMEZZO

Off-day Birding

When counters have days off, they often go birding in the nearby Chorokhi Delta, or in Batumi along the coastal boulevard and its parks. This year, our team found amazing numbers of rare birds. Already prior to the official start of the count, a Laughing Gull, which is an American species, was found on a nearby lake by one of our coordinators. Isabelline Shrikes kept showing up in the delta throughout October, and on the day after the count, when the entire team went there for a day of birding, we even found 4 individuals! We also picked up less rare, but still special, birds like Menetries’s and Moustached Warbler and Richard’s Pipit. A Common Eider was the second record for Georgia, and a Hume’s Leaf Warbler the very first. Other Siberian encounters were a Dusky Warbler in the delta and several Yellow-browed Warblers in the village.

The last week of the season was not about numbers, but mostly about extremely good observations of beautiful eagles. Mid-season most large eagles are Lesser Spotteds. They are most numerous, and are a good stepping stone to learn to identify the other eagles that typically show up later in the season. Learning to recognize Lesser Spotted Eagles helps our counters to better enjoy the rarer Greater Spotted, Steppe and Imperial Eagles that show up in October and tend to outnumber Lesser Spotteds towards the end of the season. Though numbers were relatively low this year, the last week’s observations were very satisfying!

The very last days of the season were quite rainy, not leaving much room to count. We did, however, manage a final 1.5 hours late afternoon to count our last 825 raptors, almost all Black Kits, ending their record season even higher than the anticipated figure. A mind-blowing number of 347 943 Black Kites passed over our heads this year!

We ended up counting 1 159 199 raptors this season. Besides record-breaking Black Kite numbers, we also recorded high numbers of Short-toed Eagles, and in the non-raptor category numbers of Black and White Storks were excellent, as well as Rollers and Stock Doves. Black Storks and Stock Doves were even the highest-ever recorded numbers (1888 and 2279 respectively). We would like to thank all our volunteers, our hosts, and our donors and sponsors! None of this would have been possible without you.

Didi madloba! Hopefully until next year!

This year’s count was made possible by:

You! Thanks to hundreds of donors we have reached our €20K fundraising goal for 2022. We are currently raising funds for the 2023 count.

Besides donations from private citizens, we’d like to thank the following organizations for long-term support.

World-class migration monitoring soars or falls with your support!

We are raising €20.000 for the 2023 edition of the Batumi Raptor Count. Help us reach this goal with a one-time or recurring donation.