Season take off - get ready for the peaks
It was a calm start, yes, totally calm. Only few birds passed the stations putting us in disbelief about migration ways but never doubt the birds, they will certainly come. A few first days with a few hundred birds brought us enough calm moments to prepare the migration count, the facilities, the good mood among the team. An untypical time for harriers as they flew through in numbers particularly far below the average. Doubt increased when we started counting the early morning on station 2, which we organized only for the early morning harrier migrants. And then - almost nothing.
Eventually we sighted streams of Honey Buzzards - the expected moment - the expected witnessing seemed to overcome us. 27th and 28th August we counted 20.000 and 50.000 on day already. Along with nice passerines migration with Tree Pipits, Ortolans, Short-toed Larks, Crossbills, Orioles, first Bee-eaters, we had nice numbers, nice sightings, and no doubt anymore, that more will come.
Some cloudy days brought waders: Ruffs, Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Tereks in the Delta, and 4 dark morph Arctic Skuas in station 2!!! Fantastic observation.
Eagles made our days in the beginning with a good start of 18 Steppe Eagles mostly adult, and 5 Lesser Spotted Eagles.
Very nice insects migration in the first days, mostly Sympetrum fonscolombii with hundreds if not thousands of individuals. Other nice insect, Hyles livornica (Striped Hawk-moth) feeding during the day in station 2.
And then on 29th August the awaited peak day came and brought as tons of birds to count.
Honey Buzzard: 58.000
Montagu's Harrier: 449
MonPalHen: 623
Pallid Harrier: 2
Marsh Harrier: 80
Roller: 84
and more birds. See all counts on our migration count data page.
The team is great, hardcore clickers. Good to see some guys coming back year after year, like John or Gabriel. Nice to catch back with the families as well.
Apparently Montagu's Harrier migrates with delay this year in Batumi
Montagu's Harrier juvenile by John Wright
Reaching the average peak around 3 Sep we usually have good numbers already in August. Until 25 Aug we count in average a proportion of 600 and more Montagu's Harrier / MonPalHen.
The most recent count data from last days show nearly 230 individuals until 25 Aug.
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Tomorrow we start to count
Tomorrow we will launch the 9th edition of the Batumi Raptor Count! Coordinators and first volunteer counters have settled in Sakhalvasho, Georgia, during the last days in order to complete preparations. Everything is in order, we are ready to take position on the hilltops. Tally clickers music will soon be heard through the place!
For the start of the season, we were happy to receive new equipment, as two stores from Finland donated some essential tools for the count.
The two copies of the new Flight Identification of Raptors - guides by Dick Forsman were donated by Lintuvaruste, a store owned by BirdLife Finland. The new fieldguides help us to illustrate the basics of raptor identification for newcomers, study different plumages and moult stages and solve the trickiest identification puzzles with the best possible knowledge at hand.
The two brand-new Finnsticks (you might have seen one of these in Batumi before) were donated by FotoFennica. The sticks will help us with the count performance, as they prevent stress of arms and shoulders when binoculars are held continuously, especially counting raptors flying in long streams.
We like to express our sincere gratitude to Lintuvaruste and FotoFennica!
To warm up, this morning part of the team visited Chorokhi Delta, a wetland area just south of Batumi. Some raptors were flying around, highlights were a juvenile White-tailed Eagle and 2 Long-leg ged Buzzard juveniles. The delta is already filled with plenty of White-winged Black Terns which gave very good views. But the most interesting sightings were definitely a group of 4 Terek Sandpipers (5 birds in total) and a group of 7 Ferrugineous Ducks.