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
African-Eurasian day record from Batumi: 264.891 raptors
On 2nd October 2014 our counting team witnessed the largest passage of raptors ever seen outside of the Panamerican Flyway and counted 264.891 raptors in a single day!
The early morning started with outstanding Marsh Harrier migration. Later on, some flocks of Black Kites migrated one by one in a lazy flight. But suddenly after noon Steppe Buzzards started to kettle east and west of both our stations. Their large and wide streams covered all the sky, ending up in monster kettles, where complex kettles just merged with other nearby kettles. It was impossible to draw a line between the huge kettles as everything was connected.
In Sakhalvasho at our Station 1, the streams of Steppe Buzzards became streams of large eagles, including Lesser Spotted, Short-toed, Booted, Steppe, Greater Spotted and Imperial Eagles. The counters were intensely busy counting streams and identifying the Aquilas. A similar situation happened in nearby Shuamta at our Station 2 where Steppe Buzzards covered the sky. Everywhere around the station raptors dominated the air and this astonishing natural wonder took our breath away. It was hard work and not always enjoyable when you have to count them all and identify as many as possible. But at the end of day we were overwhelmed by being witness to the 2nd biggest raptor flyway system on Earth. Enjoy the photos and videos and visit us next year to support the raptor flyway.
Gaumardjos to the raptors!
Till the 2nd October the total of raptors counted in Batumi in autumn 2014 was 1,309,622.
Two days in the Chorokhi Delta
On September 18th and 19th a small group of birders from the BRC visited the Chorokhi delta for birding. In total, we observed 99 species, including some birds in the hand at the ringing station.
We visited the delta south of the bridge as well as some small ponds just north of the bridge along the road.
The highlights were:
Sociable Lapwing - one present near the military buildings
Black-winged Pratincole – 3400 birds flying overhead, biggest flock: 2200
Stone Curlew – one near the river mouth on the shore
Heuglin’s Gull – subadult on a riverbank
Blyth’s Reed Warbler (ringing station)
Especially on the 18th a lot of passerine birds seemed to have freshly arrived in the bushes. We checked some bushes, walked around the ponds near the shore, did a bit of seawatching and spent some time at the mouth of the river, which is a good spot for waders and terns. Undoubtly the two most exciting observations were that of the Sociable Lapwing and the Pratincoles. We flushed the Lapwing near one of the military buildings at the beginning of the delta. This endangered species visits the delta every year in very small numbers during migration.
Especially in the morning, huge numbers of Black-winged Pratincole were migrating over the delta. The biggest flock we counted was about 2200 birds. In total we observed at least 3400 birds and just two sitting on one of the river banks. Probably the same birds were seen from counting station 2 that morning. Has there ever been a higher number of Black winged Pratincoles counted so far in the region? We would be happy to receive your comments on facebook or to contact@batumiraptorcount.org.
Albert de Jong & Jasper Wehrmann
(c) all photos by Albert
Full species list
| Species | Number | Species | Number |
| Mallard | 1 | Black-headed Gull | 1 |
| Pintail | 3 | Yellow-Legged Gull | 5000+ |
| Shoveler | 1 | Armenian Gull | 1 |
| Common Teal | 3 | Baltic Gull | 1 |
| Gargeney | 11 | Heuglins Gull | 1 |
| Quail | 2 | Little Gull | 3 |
| Black-necked Grebe | 2 | Common Tern | 2 |
| Little Grebe | 5 | Little Tern | 1 |
| Red-necked Grebe | 1 | Sandwich Tern | 1 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 3 | White-winged Tern | 6 |
| Cormorant | 5 | Whiskered Tern | 1 |
| Little Bittern | 1 | Turtle Dove | 30 |
| Black-crowned Night Heron | 7 | Scops Owl | 1 |
| Squacco Heron | 2 | Hoopoe | 1 |
| Cattle Egret | 2 | Kingfisher | 10+ |
| Little Egret | 2 | Bee-eater | 100+ |
| Great White Egret | 2 | Roller | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 10 | Wryneck | 2 |
| Purple Heron | 5 | Short-toed Lark | 10 |
| Osprey | 1 | Sand Martin | 100+ |
| Marsh Harrier | 5 | Barn Swallow | 100+ |
| Pallid Harrier | 4 | Tawny Pipit | 6 |
| Sparrowhawk | 3 | Tree Pipit | 10+ |
| Lesser Kestrel | 1 | Red-throated Pipit | 4 |
| Hobby | 1 | White Wagtail | 10+ |
| Moorhen | 4 | Yellow Wagtail | 100+ |
| Coot | 1 | Citrine Wagtail | 3 |
| Water Rail | 2 | Trush Nightingale | 2 |
| Little Crake | 1 | Bluethroat | 1 |
| Spotted Crake | 1 | Common Redstart | 2 |
| Black-winged Stilt | 1 | Northern Wheatear | 4 |
| Black-winged Pratincole | 3400 | Winchat | 6 |
| Little Ringed Plover | 2 | Stonechat ssp maura | 4 |
| Ringed Plover | 50 | Blackcap | 1 |
| Grey Plover | 1 | Common Whitethroat | 3 |
| Northern Lapwing | 5 | Lesser Whitethroat | 4 |
| Sociable Lapwing | 1 | River Warbler | 2 |
| Dunlin | 10 | Blyth's Reed Warbler | 1 |
| Curlew Sandpiper | 1 | Reed Warbler | 1 |
| Temmincks Stint | 1 | Great Reed Warbler | 1 |
| Little Stint | 10 | Booted Warbler | 1 |
| Wood Sandpiper | 11 | Willow Warbler | 1 |
| Green Sandpiper | 3 | Spotted Flycatcher | 1 |
| Common Sandpiper | 1 | Red-backed Shrike | 10+ |
| Common Redshank | 1 | Hooded Crow | 10+ |
| Spotted Redshank | 1 | Golden Oriole | 2 |
| Common Greenshank | 1 | House Sparrow | 8 |
| Common Snipe | 5 | Goldfinch | 15 |
| Ruff | 15 | Greenfinch | 1 |
| Ortolan Bunting | 1 |
