1 Million Raptors!
Today, after 6 weeks of counting and the last 2 days of fantastic raptor migration, we have passed the magical 1,000,000 raptor milestone!
We had many eagles in the past days, with some — like this juvenile Greater Spotted — giving off quite a show. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
Yesterday's highlights were the more than 100,000 raptors counted by both stations and the almost 1,700 eagles on Station 1, but we fell just short of the million.
When the view on the saddle is this good in the morning, you know you're up for a great day. And so it was: we passed the million mark! Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
This morning, during the Steppe Buzzard push we counted the final 8,000 birds needed to reach the million! We had a fantastic day with Griffon Vultures, many Imperial Eagles, a Crested Honey Buzzard and a very enjoyable migration of large eagles in general. And there's still more to come in the final weeks of the count… But first: we celebrate!
Sparrowhawk migration is still going strong and often results in bigger raptors being harassed when on migration, like this juvenile Honey Buzzard. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
Harrier Madness
71 Pallid Harriers counted from Shuamta alone. The bird in the photo is an adult male Pallid Harrier. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
B-A-T-U-M-I!
The best day of the season on Station 2! So far. Mixed groups of Black Kite, Honey Buzzard, Marsh, Pallid and Montagu's Harrier everywhere since the morning, making it challenging but also highly interesting to keep track of the numbers, species and different age/sex combinations. Birds were often close to the station, especially male Pallids gave very good views. The true highlight of the day were Marsh Harriers - we counted the highest number of Marsh ever recorded by the BRC (also the best total among all the counts on Trektellen): a 814 birds. Both stations combined, it makes more than 1200 individuals of this fascinating species counted today by our team.
Adult female Pallid Harrier. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
The more Marsh Harriers you see, the more you appreciate them. Photo by Triin Kaasiku.
The view from Station 2 - especially nice on a misty day like today. Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
500,000 Raptors counted!
The birds may not care, but we do: today we passed the 500,000 raptors mark! Despite today's migration being exceptionally slow for this time of year, we had a nice, comfortable day ending with fantastic harrier migration in beautiful sunset light. Our thanks go out to all the volunteers, members, donators and sponsors who have made this season's count possible.
Greetings from Sakhalvasho and Shuamta!
Team Shuamta
Team Sakhalvasho