First BRC publication in Russian Raptors Conservation journal
We are proud to announce the publication of our first Russian language paper in the Russian Raptor Research and Conservation Network’s (RRRCN) journal ‘Raptors Conservation’.
The cover of Raptors Conservation features a stunning juvenile Short-toed Eagle giving onlookers in the Batumi bottleneck a close look.
Spearheaded by Olga Zaytseva, the new publication is a follow-up to our British Birds article, providing both a translation to the Russian-speaking community as well as a review of likely breeding areas of migrants passing Batumi and a comparison between Russian breeding population estimates and numbers of migrants in Batumi.
Despite ongoing conflict in our flyway, we are proud to feature on the cover of Raptors Conservation journal. It truly is an important milestone for us in connecting with the researchers that work in the breeding areas of most of the raptors that we are monitoring every autumn in Georgia.
Watch Now: Worlds Collide
The short film Worlds Collide, directed by Nicholas Rodd, about migration through the Georgian bottleneck is now free to watch indefinitely and embedded below.
“Across the eastern coast of the Black Sea, through the foothills of the Southern Caucasus Mountains one of the world’s greatest natural spectacles takes place. Over a million birds of prey pass through a narrow bottleneck in Georgia. Below them, scientists and birders eagerly watch and record the skies whilst at the same time local traditions send showers of bullets and nets snapping in their direction.
A clash of ideals and beliefs, this film will take you into the heart of an evolving story. A story which explores a clash of western ideals with local customs, a shared love and excitement for the magic that is migration, a world apart in how they enjoy the spectacle. A conflict waiting to happen or an opportunity to show a new way in which conservationists can work together with local communities to avoid a deep and bitter battle, safeguarding the future of migration in Georgia.”
For OSME (the Ornithological Society for the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia), Nicholas wrote a guest blog about the project.
World-class migration monitoring at Batumi soars or falls with your support!
Dear raptor enthusiast,
Over the past years we have been getting more and more surprised reactions from volunteers and visitors about the fact that Batumi Raptor Count is a 100% volunteer-based organisation. “How can it be that this world-class migration count is run by people in their spare time?” And they are right to be surprised! The fact of the matter is that our monitoring work is of extraordinary quality, delivering unique data to detect trends in the abundance, demography and migration timing of otherwise poorly known raptor populations. Our open and transparent data collection and sharing procedures far exceed common standards for bird observatories worldwide. At the same time we have provided numerous young people from around the world with life-changing and career-defining experiences in raptor research and conservation. Our migration counts and physical presence in Georgia also serve as the platform from which we have run numerous education and conservation projects in the past.
For thirteen years we have managed to keep the counts going without big crowdfunding efforts. However, despite the fact that long-term monitoring is critical to understand how bird populations are faring in our rapidly changing world, structural funding for monitoring schemes such as ours is very hard, if not impossible, to find. Until now we have been able to get by on grassroots conservation grants, support from loyal sponsors like Swarovski Optik and OSME, t-shirt sales, donations from ecotourism operators and members of the public, and last but not least: thousands of hours of unpaid work by 395 volunteers from dozens of countries. However, times are a changin, and now that BRC is entering its 14th year of continued monitoring efforts the moment has come to tell you loud and clear: the Batumi Raptor Count soars or falls with your support. The best way to ensure our world-class monitoring work can continue is to donate generously to our charitable cause!
Asking for money is never fun. But we believe we have earned our place as a respectable, reliable, and resilient organisation that helps make the world a better place for raptors. So here is the deal: we need 20.000EUR per year to run our autumn count, and the only way we have left to get it is by asking for your support. If we do not get the required amount before June 2022, there will not be a raptor count in Georgia next autumn. However, given our large international base of supporters and followers, we believe it should be possible to raise this amount through an annual crowdfunding campaign, the first of which will run from Dec 2021 through May 2022.
On the crowdfunding page you will find more details on what the money will be used for exactly. On average, 200EUR funds one day of high-quality counts. With 130EUR you fund a one-week participation of a young Georgian conservationist. So what are you waiting for? Please, help us circulate this message widely, and let’s get the funds we need asap. The sooner we get our budgets together, the better our team can focus on organizing a high-quality count, producing important research, and organising valuable education and conservation work in parallel to the counts, instead of wasting our time competing with other conservation groups for small grants. Your donation makes a massive difference to us, and you know we’ll use it wisely!
Warm wishes,
Batumi Raptor Count team