Crazy, chaotic and unforgettable: Batumi’s second biggest day ever!

After what felt like an eternity of cold and rainy days (which was really just a week-ish), on 4 October we finally had good weather. And as many of you might know, ‘after rain comes sunshine’, but in Batumi it’s known as ‘after rain comes a big day’. And what a BIG day it was!!

Already early in the morning the birds were there: steady streams with Black Kites, Steppe Buzzards, Pallid Harriers, Booted Eagles and a lot of Marsh Harriers. But around mid-morning the chaos truly came: Station 1 with monstrous streams of Black Kites, Station 2 with gigantic (mostly chaotic) streams of Steppe Buzzards. And soon enough the large eagles started to show up, making it all the more challenging.

Large eagles and Steppe Buzzards circling across a clouded sky. — Large eagles and Steppe Buzzards filling the sky over the Batumi bottleneck. Photo: Bart Hoekstra

Birds were everywhere; they covered the whole sky over both stations. So many birds we could not even count them all! And it gets crazy chaotic with the Steppe Buzzards: they don’t migrate nicely in one straight stream like the Honey Buzzards and Black Kites. No, Steppe Buzzards have never heard of kettling up in one kettle and streaming out on top in one nice stream; they just fly wherever they want. It’s just chaos, and all the extra species go right along with them! Trying to find all the other extra species in the massive numbers of Black Kites and Steppe Buzzards alone was a challenge in itself; trying to identify as many eagles as possible was on a whole other level!

A Short-toed Snake Eagle soaring overhead with its patterned underwings spread. — A Short-toed Snake Eagle. With little time for photography during the big day, some of the pictures accompanying this update come from other days this season. Photo: Bart Hoekstra

Our team was clicking as many birds as possible non-stop for hours: no breaks, no lunch, just count.

Ultimately, we managed to count a combined 239,735 raptors! This was the SECOND BIGGEST DAY EVER in BRC history! And it wasn’t just a big day for totals: we also broke our daily and season records for Black Kites, our daily record for large eagles, our daily record for Greater Spotted Eagles and even for Steppe Eagles! This day was absolutely beyond anything we could’ve ever wished for; it was gloriously unhinged and unforgettable!

The Station 2 field notes capture the pace of the day:

Steppe-Eagle here, Steppe-Eagle there, Greater Spotted overhead, Lesser Spotted East 1. Just non-stop birds, non-stop eagles.

[…] both Bart and Diego have said this was their best day in BRC history ever! Now that genuinely is high praise coming from them.

For more, read both stations’ full field notes for 4 October alongside the day’s counts.

The Station 2 team smiling and raising their arms at the count station, with green hills behind them. — The Station 2 team after experiencing the 2nd biggest day for raptor migration in BRC history. Photo: Bart Hoekstra

A Steppe Eagle seen from below, with broad wings spread against a pale sky. — A Steppe Eagle, one of the species for which we set a new daily record. Photo: Thijmen Stolk

BRC volunteers gathered together for a group picture inside a restaurant. — The team together at the restaurant a few days prior to the 2nd biggest day for the bottleneck. Photo: Elle Heiser

An Osprey banking against clouds with its long wings outstretched. — An Osprey passing through the bottleneck. Photo: Bart Hoekstra