Spring Count 2020
Coronavirus update — March 14th, 2020
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. Running a count with a changing team of international volunteers is not responsible given the current situation. The safety and well-being of our counters and Georgian host families is of course a top priority for the BRC, therefore we decided to cancel the participation and accommodation of all project volunteers, who are not in Georgia already.
For now the spring count will continue to run with the five counters that are already present in Sakhakvasho, but we will keep a close eye on new developments in case more drastic measures should be taken.
In 2019 we carried out the first pilot spring count in the Batumi bottleneck, which revealed a very different composition of spring raptor migration vs. autumn raptor migration at Batumi, with record numbers of Black Kites and surprisingly low numbers of Honey Buzzard, to name just a few remarkable findings.
To see if the data collected in 2019 is representative, we are organising another pilot spring count this year. To make it happen, we are looking for volunteer counters.
“Spring is the time to observe endless streams of Black Kites migrating over the sea while they sporadically catch some fish, or watch them grab insects out of the air right above our heads. During the first half of the season you can see, more inland, streams of Steppe Buzzards accompanied by eagles, cranes and storks. Later on they will be replaced by Honey Buzzards and Harriers, even though we didn’t count that many of them last spring, we don’t know what the coming spring will bring us. To top it all, during spring time you won’t be counting raptors in silence. Soon passerines, such as Ortolan Buntings, will join the concert of birdsongs and the sound of our clickers. Hopefully we’ll see you this spring in Batumi!” - Tohar Tal and Diego Jansen, counters of spring 2019.
The view from the counting station in early spring. Photo by Tohar Tal.
The count will run from the 1st of March until the 25th of May. The BRC will take care of the logistics, but all costs (travel and 18 €/day for accommodation and food) would have to be covered by counters themselves. The season will be coordinated by an experienced migration counter Tohar Tal.
Please contact us (spring@batumiraptorcount.org) to let us know about your interest in participating in the spring count 2020. We will then get back to you with more details.
PS. As the spring pilot counts are run with a small team of people, each counter has more responsibilities and should preferably (though not necessarily) have previous experience with (raptor) migration counts. The counts will only be conducted from Station 1 (Sakhalvasho). Contrary to our autumn counts, there is no strict minimum or maximum number of days you can join us for.