Research Coordinator
Dear BRC-enthusiasts,
The Georgian Black Sea coast is a walhalla for birders, but also ecologists and other researchers are increasingly interested to visit the area. The BRC is deeply committed to help develop a thriving bird research community in the Caucasus, and more specifically in Georgia. We are, therefore, very happy to announce that Wouter Vansteelant will be the first research coordinator at the BRC for the coming 2-3 years.
Wouter was a board member of BRC between 2008–2013 and as a Conservation Leadership Intern at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (PA, U.S.A.) he investigated the influence of weather on route choice of raptors in the Batumi bottleneck (Vansteelant et al. 2014a). Wouter is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis on the role of weather in the soaring migration of European Honey-Buzzards with the Computational Geo-ecology group at the University of Amsterdam (see for example Vansteelant et al. 2014b). He is also secretary on the board of the Migrant Landbird Study Group which seeks to promote collaborative flyway-scale research projects on Palearctic migrants. Given his experience in both academic research and conservation, we consider Wouter well placed to coordinate research in harmony with our monitoring and conservation efforts.
The first step in developing research activities is to outline strategic research priorities in the Batumi region. Over the coming years, BRC will take a proactive role in developing conservation-based research projects, focusing on the following topics:
The role of weather in raptor migration: we need to understand how migration counts are affected by weather conditions to infer population trends from count data. Weather influences are also important for impact assessments of wind farms,power-lines and other constructions which pose potential collision risk for raptors.
Identifying source populations of migrants in Georgia: birds migrating along the eastern Black Sea coast are expected to originate from the same breeding populations each year. It is of vital importance to identify these source populations for understanding population trends from migration counts, ringing data, …
Quantifying the importance of stop-over sites for migrating birds: coastal wetlands such as the Chorokhi delta may be crucial stepping stones for species migrating along the Black Sea coast. However, natural areas are threatened by growing economic development in the region. We need to better quantify the importance of natural areas in the Batumi region for migratory bird populations.
In addition to conservation-based research, we will host external researchers that seek to understand more fundamental aspects of migration ecology. Our new research coordinator will be responsible to integrate applied and fundamental research into a coherent research program. Furthermore, at BRC we recognize that research projects provide a valuable training opportunity for young researchers from the Caucasus. Another key role for Wouter will therefore be to integrate education and capacity-building in research wherever possible.
We wish Wouter the best of luck and look forward to report on research outcomes over the coming years. Researchers who are interested to work in the Batumi bottleneck are hereby cordially invited to contact Wouter with their inquiries!
Relevant publications:
W.M.G. Vansteelant, W. Bouten, R. H. G. Klaassen, B. J. Koks, A. E. Schlaich, J. van Diermen, E. E. van Loon & J. Shamoun-Baranes (2014b). Regional and seasonal flight speeds of soaring migrants and the role of weather conditions at hourly and daily scales. Journal of Avian Biology. doi: 10.1111/jav.00457
W.M.G. Vansteelant, B. Verhelst, J. Shamoun-Baranes, W. Bouten, E.E. van Loon & K.L. Bildstein (2014a). Effect of wind, thermal convection, and variation in flight strategies on the daily rhythm and flight paths of migrating raptors at Georgia’s Black Sea coast. Journal of Field Ornithology, 85(1), 40-55. 10.1111/jofo.12048
B. Verhelst, J. Jansen, W. Vansteelant (2011) South West Georgia: an important bottleneck for raptor migration during autumn. Ardea 99 (2), 137-146
Raptor shooting survey
Not only birdwatchers are keen on autumn raptor migration, the region around Batumi is also notorious for its raptor shooters. Although it is illegal in Georgia to shoot raptors, many get shot when passing the bottleneck.
A mixed team of Georgian and international volunteers are conducting a survey of the shooting and trapping of raptors in the Batumi bottleneck, from August 15 to September 30. This work is important to evaluate our conservation outcomes, and is funded by the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. It's a follow-up on previous research into this topic. The Master’s thesis work of Johannes Jansen is the most recent, a summary of which can be found here.
The aim of the study is to quantify the pressure of illegal killing in the region on populations of migratory raptors, and to set up a standardized monitoring scheme to be carried out in the next years. In addition, further attention is devoted to documenting the drivers of this illegal killing. BRC has established a non-confrontational approach to reduce this killing. The results of this study will be used to evaluate and optimize our approach to the conservation of migratory birds, based on public involvement, education and ecotourism. The data will also be used to contribute to BirdLife's illegal killing of birds program.
The survey team reports: "The first month of the hunting season has almost passed, and we are in the field observing the hunting pressure and talking with hunters every day. We are interviewing at least one hunter in every village that looks suitable for hunting along the entire coastal zone of Ajara. Most of the hunters are very friendly and willing to answer our questions that are directed to their personal background, demography of the village, number of local hunters, their hunting habits and motivation. On cloudy, rainy days when birds fly very low making an easy target, we spend the day in those villages that were identified as "hunting hotspots" with the help of these interviews, and collect data on the intensity of shooting, and the birds killed or injured. We believe that our efforts will lead to a better estimation on the extent of raptor killing and the number of active hunters in Ajara, and to a better understanding of this practice and the drivers behind."
Updated protocol of monitoring raptors
With the experiences from 6 years counting raptors at Batumi we decided to discuss the protocol, our insights into the migration flow at the bottleneck and the integration of new ideas. The meeting was held in the beautiful scenery of Wageningen, Netherlands. The updated version of the protocol will soon be provided to our count coordinators and counters at BRC 2014.
We are thankful to everybody giving us comments, feedback and insights into the monitoring of raptors at other bottlenecks of the WP. Special thanks goes to Wouter, Simon and Rafa for this splendid and efficient meeting.
