Spring Report 2022 published
An adult male Pallid Harrier treating us to some nice views. Photo by Tohar Tal.
The third and final spring count gave us beautiful snow-covered surroundings and raptors in perfect light, we witnessed the return of birds and spring. We had great views of close-by flying raptors and many medium-raptors far away, Black Kites foraging in the evening light and many more interesting observations.
Have fun reading!
Already 400K raptors during the 3rd and final Spring Count
The 3rd pilot Spring Count is already halfway through, we have been counting for one and a half months and have already counted 400k raptors this season.
A classic spring view: Black Kites in front of the Batumi skyline. Photo by Marc Heetkamp.
For the first three weeks weather conditions were bad with heavy snowfall, which made counting difficult. But in the short periods without rain and snow, we were still able to count some raptors and enjoy the passerines around the station. From the 21st of March on, the weather finally started to clear up and migration was on! And with the still cold and snowy surroundings -we were standing in 30cm of snow- the increasing number of raptors made up for it. We were counting thousands of Black Kites and Steppe Buzzards and lots of large eagles. And even saw insane numbers of Imperial Eagle (26), Greater Spotted Eagle (53) and Short-toed Eagle (204) in a day! What makes these kinds of numbers (and in general raptor migration) even more enjoyable is the close fly-bys paired with great light conditions from the snow, which makes for wonderful views and photos. Towards the end of March, we were counting 20k+ raptors a day (most of them Black Kites), often in messy streams in every distance code. That is the Spring Count for you, thousands of birds to count by only a few counters. But that was nothing compared to the 1st of April, when we counted 56k+ raptors! Black Kites and Steppe Buzzards everywhere, massive kettles and streams everywhere. To count this big mess is a challenge, but our counters thrived on the chaos and adrenaline and managed just fine (of course we counted a lot of medium raptors).
An unusual white bird in an unusually white landscape. A Short-toed Eagle making its way through the snowy bottleneck. Photo by Marc Heetkamp.
It's now almost halfway April and we are still counting over 10k raptors a day and even found 4 Rough-legged Buzzards this season (2 in one day on April 9)! The snow is gone, flowers are starting to bloom, butterflies are flying around, and passerines have started to sing: spring is here!
Red-breasted Flycatcher. Photo by Marc Heetkamp.
Bugle. Photo by Elien Hoekstra.
Semi-collared Flycatcher. Photo by Marc Heetkamp.
We still have over 1 month to go, and we are eagerly waiting to see what more is to come. After this third and final pilot Spring Count we will process all our spring migration data and we plan to publish these results in the near future.
Volunteers Wanted: Spring Count 2022
In 2019 and 2020 we carried out the first and second spring pilot count in the Batumi bottleneck. These counts have already revealed a very different composition of spring raptor migration vs. autumn raptor migration at Batumi, with record numbers of Black Kites and surprisingly lower numbers of Honey Buzzard, to name just a few remarkable findings. Find more detailed information about the results of these two counts, and realize how amazing springtime is in Batumi, by reading the reports of 2019 and 2020.
Messy Black Kites. Photo by Bjorn Alards.
After the upcoming third and final spring pilot count in 2022, we will process all of our spring migration data and based on these results conclude whether we’ll continue the spring counts in future years. First things first, to complete the cycle and count all the raptors in order to gather sufficient data, we need volunteers for the upcoming spring count!
“Spring in Batumi 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, against snow-covered mountain peaks more inland, you can see streams of Steppe Buzzards accompanied by eagles, cranes and storks. Later on they will be replaced by Honey Buzzards and Harriers, even though their numbers haven’t been like in autumn, we don’t know what coming spring will bring us. To top it all off, during spring time you won’t be counting raptors in silence. Soon passerines, such as Ortolan Buntings and Red-breasted Flycatchers, 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 & 2020.
The count will run from the 1st of March until the 26th 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.
Please contact us via spring@batumiraptorcount.org to let us know about your interest in participating in the spring count 2022. We can then answer any questions you might have and/or get back to you with more details.
PS. The spring pilot counts are run with a small team of people, this means that 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.