Batumi Bird Festival 2013 report
Yesterday we celebrated the end of a fantastic second edition of the Batumi Bird Festival 2013. This event, at which we explored the different aspects of birding around Batumi during a 5 day program from 3-8 September 2013, was a great success. We had over 100 participants attending various activities, excursions and lectures. With a highly diverse set of nationalities, there was great interaction and atmosphere was warm. Both the participants staying at the BRC guesthouses and at the Oasis hotel had a comfortable stay. And with the opening of our new office in Batumi we established another landmark in BRC's history.
Birding highlights included amazing Honey buzzard migration on the first day, with almost 50.000 individuals counted over station one alone. To see an impression for yourself, check the movie from this day on youtube, made by Zacke! Part of this flight was also observed by the other group, who was birding in the Chorokhi Delta. They had high quality views of flocks crossing the river mouth and gaining height over the fishponds. On the ground, excellent views were obtained on several Little Crakes and Broad-billed Sandpipers that were around, in addition to multiple other goodies like Glossy Ibis, Rosy Starling, Citrine Wagtails, Collared Pratincole, Lesser Grey Shrikes, Short-toed larks etc. A Corncrake that flushed in between the group was a lifer for a few. One group who birded the river bed even located a group of 4 Terek sandpipers.
The second day was very rainy, and raptor migration was likely to be slow. So it was decided to go sea-watching. From a beach club just north of Makhinjauri, we comfortably installed us on the sheltered terrace and watched what came in from the sea. It proved to be very productive: several Nightjars were seen flying in from the sea, surprisingly also one Scops Owl, and among the many gulls Armenian Gull was seen. The harbour area proved full of migrants, worth to mention are Booted Warbler, Black-eared Wheatear and flock of Night herons.
The trip to Mtirala National park on the next day had good weather, and during the walk we focused on the stunning subtropical lush vegetation of this well protected botanical hotspot. Many of the plants encountered there are very range restricted. We also succeeded in locating the endemic Caucasian newt, and participants were lucky to observe the Krüper's Nuthatch.
Another group decided to stay in the village, and get up to the raptor watch point to see some migration. The weather was not perfect, but in the late morning it began to clear. Some passerines started to migrate, as Tristan Reid reports: "a few Ortolans, Greater Short-toed Larks and a tree full or Golden Orioles were seen. As the weather became warmer, the first of the raptors appeared along the coastal strip below us. Marsh Harriers and Montagu’s Harriers appeared first and then there was a few small groups of Honey Buzzards. Black Kites appeared in small numbers as did a couple of Steppe Buzzards. A couple of Levant Sparrowhawks with a few Eurasian Sparrowhawks was a fantastic sight as were Hobby and a single brookei Peregrine and five Rollers! An Osprey was also a nice bonus!"
On Saturday migration started slowly, but around noon it picked up and big streams started flying inland. The participants were happy to be on our easternmost station to see them up close. Many Montagu's and Pallid harriers were among the flight, and the third Crested Honey buzzard was seen! From the station, we had good views on Green Warbler as well.
The evening lectures at the Oasis hotel were attended by an nice crowd. Brecht Verhelst talked about the history of BRC, its monitoring and population trends. But especially the part on the growth, accomplishments and future prospects of the project were impressive. On the second evening, Johannes Jansen presented his work on the hunting concerns of the region. He highlighted the extent and impact of the shooting on migrating raptors, gave insight in the different opportunities to tackle these and introduced all on the tradition of falconry present in the area. Tristan Reid gave a great and inspiring talk on his project giving his arms to conservation, and his Walking for Wildlife project to support conservation in Turkey.
The third evening, Jonathan Meyrav gave a very animated and fascinating talk on the long term monitoring and study of soaring migrants over Israël, and also touch upon their boarderless conservation work transcending the difficult political situation in the region.
The last evening, we had the honor to have Rob Sheldon over, and he gave us a thorough overview of the Sociable lapwing conservation and the efforts on international flyway protection.
The celebration banquet, held at the Oasis beach restaurant,was the culmination on the past week, and we enjoyed to much delicious Georgian food and drinks, with a party that will long be remembered.
Thank you to all participants, volunteers and students who participated. Thanks to the bird guides, guesthouse owners and drivers. Many thanks to the lecturers, to the organizing committee, and especially to Alex Rukhaia for all the hard work. Our gratitude goes out towards the Department of Tourism and Resorts of Ajara for the support!
We are now underway on the extension tour towards Kazbegi, a report on this additional trip can be found here.
Catch up on the season
This year’s autumn migration season has been underway for 21 days now, and so far everything points to another great experience for all participants.
Numbers of migrating Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Booted Eagle, Marsh Harrier and Montagu’s Harrier have been steadily rising over the course of the last 15 days. These “core species” of our count form the majority of passing birds (among Bee-Eaters) at the first half of the autumn migration. At the same time less abundant species like storks and Pallid Harrier have also begun their migration and show up in smaller numbers. As well as these expected species, there were also sightings of species one hopes to see so early in the season, including Greater Spotted, Steppe and White-tailed Eagle and a couple of Crested Honey Buzzard.
So far numbers for Honey Buzzard are lower than they were at this time in BRC’s record-breaking 2012 season (2012: 593.830; 2013: 344.603). But still many individuals are expected to come in the next days. Due to heavy rains, high cloud cover in the entire Caucasus mixed with heavy storms, the numbers of migrants in general were quite low in the last days. During peak migration this rises the hope of incredible unblocked migration after the weather clears up. Watching out of the window - the clouds have gone – what can be happen tomorrow then?
As every year the day-offs are seldom used to hang around but to go birding in the very attractive delta of the Chorokhi river just near Batumi. With its dynamic wetlands and the ponds the delta produce high diversity of migrating passerines and raptors usually coming there for feeding and resting. Read the article of a team of BRC counters who went to the Delta on a rainy day and made incredible observations.
The BRC’s team is daily reinforced by new counters from all over Europe and is preparing itself for the coming Honey Buzzard and Montagu’s Harrier peak days. The team now consists of people from all over Europe: Belgium, France, Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, United Kingdom, and Spain. We are happy to not only have the diversity in birds but also in count-volunteers, team-members, sponsors and supporters.
Thanks to all – realizing together with us this tremendous autumn migration raptor count!
Birding in the Chorokhi Delta
The first of september 2013 was a day that will be long remembered for us, four lucky BRC counters that decided to spend their day off in the Chorokhi delta.
Not because of the weather though. When we arrived at 8 am the rain poured down already and it wouldn't really stop. The heavy rainfall of the night before resulted in much higher water levels than normal, making an otherwise easy walk now a challenging exercise, and after one hour we were completely soaked, cold and trembling, even considering to go back. Given the fact that it couldn't get any worse we decided to give it a try and worked our way to the beach. A day that started with rain ended with rain, but also with a lot of birds.
Despite the heavy rain and our limited use of optics, the bushes on our way to the beach produced good numbers of passerines. These including several olivaceous warblers, barred warbler, wryneck, shrikes, whinchats and (hemprichii) stonechats. In the open areas in between these bushes we found ortolan buntings, yellow and citrine wagtails and a flock of 40 short-toed larks. In one of the flooded areas we found our first two broad-billed sandpipers, several wood sandpipers and a nice flock of 25 little gulls. When we arrived at the beach, one of the first birds we found was a beautiful though rain-soaked black-eared wheatear. During a brief intermission in the rain, we decided to try our luck over the sea. This was very productive, with 4 arctic skuas, 75 garganeys, a red-necked grebe with some great crested grebes and an astonishing 674 yelkouan shearwaters in two time frames of 30 min!
Walking north we flushed 3 little bitterns from the small bushes on the beach, as well as lots of willow warblers, whitethroats, wheatears, wagtails and a great reed warbler. Even more spectacular were the lesser whitethroat, 5 hoopoes, 3 nightjars and 1 roller that we saw coming in from the sea. Good numbers of yellow wagtail were migrating south, with 300 of them in a five-minute frame only. The river mouth was very interesting, with 5 additional broad-billed sandpipers and a terek sandpiper in a nice mixed flock of waders. A huge flock of 400 white-winged terns, 400 little terns, 30 gull-billed terns, several common terns, whiskered terns and a couple of caspian terns was continuously flying around. The air was filled with mixed groups of up to 110 greenshanks, 90 wood sandpipers, 100s of calidris sandpipers, 22 night herons, tens of grey and purple herons and much more.
The downside of this nice day (besides the pouring rain and fogged up optics) was the presence and activity of hunters. We counted 194 shots during our time in the delta and saw at least a dozen hunters. Several herons were flying round with broken legs or damaged wings. The most heart-breaking part was the moment when we had to euthanize a ringed plover laying on the beach, wounded from a gun shot.
This day showed us the importance of the Chorokhi delta as a stopover place for a great variety of birds. Although it may be cold and wet, Chorokhi delta may be very well worth a visit on a rainy day!
Wouter van Pelt, Rasmus Elleby, Zackarias Svensson and Filip Collit
| Passing | Staying | Comment | ||
| Shoveler | Anas clypeata | 3 | ||
| Wigeon | Anas penelope | 2 | ||
| Garganey | Anas querquedula | 75 | ||
| Little grebe | Tachybaptus ruficollis | 2 | ||
| Great crested grebe | Podiceps cristatus | 6 | 2 | |
| Red-necked grebe | Podiceps grisegena | 1 | ||
| Yelkouan shearwater | Puffinus yelkouan | 674 | Passed during approx. one hour | |
| Cormorant | Phalacrocorax carbo | 4 | ||
| Little bittern | Ixobrychus minutus | 3 | ||
| Night heron | Nycticorax nycticorax | 35 | 13 + 22, probably 2 birds shot | |
| Squacco heron | Ardeola ralloides | 2 | ||
| Little egret | Egretta garzetta | 6 | 10 | |
| Grey heron | Ardea cinerea | 50 | 10 | |
| Purple heron | Ardea purpurea | 10 | 20 | |
| Marsh harrier | Circus aeruginosus | 1 | 2 | One immature male coming in from the sea |
| Montagu's/Pallid harrier | Circus pygragus/macrourus | 2 | ||
| Honey buzzard | Pernis apivorus | 1 | Coming in from the sea | |
| Hobby | Falcon subbuteo | 2 | ||
| Peregrine falcon | Falco peregrinus | 1 | ||
| Oystercatcher | Haematopus ostralegus | 9 | ||
| Ringed plover | Charadrius hiaticula | 3 | 1 shot bird | |
| Grey plover | Pluvialis squatarola | 35 | ||
| Turnstone | Arenaria interpres | 1 | ||
| Dunlin | Calidris alpina | 100 | ||
| Broad billed sandpiper | Limicola falcinellus | 7 | ||
| Little stint | Calidris minuta | 24 | ||
| Wood sandpiper | Tringa glareola | 90 | ||
| Green sandpiper | Tringa ochropus | 10 | ||
| Common sandpiper | Actitis hypoleucos | 1 | ||
| Terek sandpiper | Xenus cinereus | 1 | ||
| Greenshank | Tringa nebularea | 110 | ||
| Black-tailed godwit | Limosa limosa | 9 | ||
| Whimbrel | Numerius phaeopus | 1 | ||
| Ruff | Philomachus pugnax | 5 | ||
| Arctic skua | Stercorarius parasiticus | 4 | juv | |
| Black-headed gull | Chroicocephalus ridibundus | 1 | ||
| Slender-billed gull | Chroicocephalus genei | 1 | ||
| Yellow-legged gull | Larus michahellis | 2000 | ||
| Little gull | Hydrocoloeus minutus | 25 | ||
| Little tern | Sternula albifrons | 400 | ||
| Gull-billed tern | Gelochelidon nilotica | 30 | ||
| Common tern | Sterna hirundo | 10 | ||
| Caspian tern | Hydroprogne caspia | 4 | ||
| White-winged tern | Chlidonias leucopterus | 400 | ||
| Whiskered tern | Chlidonias hybrida | 8 | ||
| Turtle dove | Streptopelia turtur | 14 | ||
| Nightjar | Caprimulgus europaeus | 3 | Coming in from the sea | |
| Hoopoe | Upupa epops | 9 | 5 coming in from sea | |
| Kingfisher | Alcedo atthis | 4 | ||
| Roller | Coracias garrulus | 2 | 1 coming in from the sea | |
| Wryneck | Jynx torquilla | 1 | ||
| Shorttoed lark | Calandrella brachydactyla | 40 | large flock | |
| Sand martin | Riparia riparia | 200 | ||
| Barn swallow | Hirondo rustica | 250 | 120 | |
| House martin | Delichon urbicum | 30 | ||
| Tree pipit | Anthus trivialis | 10 | ||
| White wagtail | Motacilla alba | 50 | ||
| Yellow wagtail | Motacilla flaca | 300 | 150 | flava/thunbergi/feldegg. 300 birds passing in only 5 minutes |
| Citrine wagtail | Motacilla citreola | 10 | ||
| Trush nightingale | Lusciana lusciana | 15 | ||
| Wheatear | Oenanthe oenanthe | 50 | ||
| Black-eared wheatear | Oenanthe melanoleuca | 1 | ||
| Whinchat | Saxicola rubetra | 15 | ||
| Siberian stonechat | Saxicola maurus hemprichii | 3 | ||
| Barred warbler | Sylvia nisoria | 1 | ||
| Blackcap | Sylvia atricapilla | 5 | ||
| Whitethroat | Sylvia communis | 15 | ||
| Lesser whitethroat | Sylvia curruca | 2 | ||
| Great reed warbler | Acrocephalus arundinaceus | 4 | ||
| Olivecious warbler | Iduna pallida | 5 | ||
| Willow warbler | Phylloscopus trochilus | 20 | ||
| Spotted flycatcher | Muscicapa striata | 1 | ||
| Great tit | Parus major | 2 | ||
| Penduline tit | Remiz pendulinus | 1 | ||
| Lesser grey shrike | Lanius minor | 1 | ||
| Red-backed shrike | Lanius collurio | 50 | ||
| Hooded crow | Corvus cornix | 35 | ||
| Golden oriole | Oriolus oriolus | 3 | ||
| Ortolan bunting | Emberiza hortulana | 16 | ||
| Shots | 194 | |||
| Shot birds | ||||
| Ringed plover | 1 | |||
| Night heron | 1 | |||
| Purple heron | 1 |