New publication: Opportunistic in-flight foraging behaviour of Black Kites during spring migration
The most recent autumn issue of the Sandgrouse, published by OSME, contains a short paper describing preliminary results of Black Kites obtained during the two BRC spring counts conducted so far. The results of the spring count show interesting in-flight foraging behaviour of Black Kites and describe their more numerous occurrence in spring compared to autumn. The paper is now available open access!
Black Kite with an interesting prey: a mole! Photo by Tohar Tal.
Abstract
In 2019 and 2020 the Batumi Raptor Count conducted two small-scale pilot counts to assess the importance of the flyway in spring. We present preliminary results for Black Kite Milvus migrans, showing that this species is more numerous in spring than in autumn and that it engages in in-flight foraging while passing through the Batumi bottleneck, a behaviour that has never been observed in twelve years of autumn counts. In-flight foraging appears to be largely opportunistic, occurring during only a short period of the Black Kite migration season and involving a minority of individuals. As such, in-flight foraging opportunities are unlikely to be the main cause of the greater spring aggregation of Black Kites in the eastern Black Sea flyway.
This year the third and final spring count will be conducted from the start of March till the end of May. Are you interested in participating? Don’t hesitate and send an email to spring@batumiraptorcount.org.
BRC Magazine 2019
With all that 2020 is throwing at us, last year feels like an eternity ago already. Unfortunately the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to cancel the Autumn Count for 2020, but behind the scenes we are already working on the next things to come in 2021.
We are proud to present to you the 4th edition of the BRC Member Magazine, our most comprehensive overview of our work in the past year. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we do: regardless of our current situation, 2019 has been a great year to look back upon, especially as it was our first with year-round monitoring of migration in the Batumi bottleneck!
The contributions of our BRC Members are critical in making our monitoring and conservation work possible, as we are a 100% volunteer-based organization. Do you want to support our work with a Membership? Then you will get early access to the annual BRC Magazine. For more information about the membership, click the button below.
Magazine 2019
Autumn Report 2019 published
Adult male dark morph Marsh Harrier. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
The 12th season brought unprecedented numbers of Black Kites, a new raptor species for the BRC counts, and marked the start of an education project in collaboration with local teachers. You can read about that, and a LOT more, in the extensive report of the last season. Make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for the behind-the-scenes gallery.
Have fun reading!