End of BRC autumn count 2013
BRC's monitoring of migrating raptors autumn 2013 is over! Yesterday, the 16th of October, was the final day of our monitoring program. In total, from both count stations together 1.229.199 raptors were counted this fall. This might be a new season record, although the data is not filtered yet on double counts.
After the strong flight in the first days of October, that made the count surpass the million, migration slowed down. The volunteers were treated with more slow paced migration, and had plenty of time to enjoy the different eagles. Especially the Imperial eagles migrated quite late this year. Strikingly, Steppe Buzzards waited for the last day to outnumber Honey Buzzards. This year we counted 445.084 of them. And as it was a last day present, a Golden Eagle flew over station two. An detailed season overview will follow soon.
A big word of thanks should go to all people that contributed to this count. All this would not have been possible without the many volunteers that engaged themselves to work long days at the count stations. Especially to our three count coordinators Simon Cavailles, Clement Rollant and Rafael Benjumea. Respect for their day to day motivation, keeping up a high quality count the full two months! Special thanks to Amelie Armand, Daniel Towers, Florian Jacobs and Romain Riols, who assisted us during almost the entire season and were the backbone of our count team. Of course, a project like this stands out due to its meticulous preparation. Many thanks to Arthur Green, who was instrumental in setting up the monitoring, tuned the protocol and did a tremendous job selecting and communicating with the count volunteer team. Thanks to Dries Engelen, who took care of the practical preparation as an intern and his help during the first days of the count. And of course, big thanks to all others who volunteered in the count: Iva Sostaric, Bilgecan Şen, Pelin Yalçınoğlu, Matthias Lehmann, Claire Stavaux, Filip Collet, Wouter van Pelt, Rasmus Elleby, Zackarias Svensson, Albert de Jong, Simon Vyncke, Paul French, Aki Aintila, Dieter Coelembier, Kalle Meller, Jan Ranson, Csaba Tölgyesi, Marius Karlonas, Fabian Binard, Filiep T'jollyn, Jeroen Bossens, Olivier Dochy, Rien van Wijk, David Herman, Vladislav Rudovskiy, Johannes Silvonen, Birgen Haest, Jo Bouwmeester and Irene Jiménez.
We much appreciated all the work of the host families where we were accommodated, thank you Ruslan, Nuri, Etheri, Merabi and all other family members. They have supported our count logistically in many ways, and were invaluable for our success.
And many thanks to all sponsors and grants who have made this season possible!
Hope to see you next year!