New publication: Egyptian Nightjar at the Chorokhi delta, Georgia and status in Europe
Egyptian Nightjar. Photo by Simon Cavaillès.
In August 2017 a BRC team (Jonas Schärer, Xu Shi and Jaime Escobar) observed an Egyptian Nightjar in the Chorokhi Delta which turned out to be the first national record. An article written by Jonas Schärer and Simon Cavaillès has just been released in Dutch Birding. They detail the Chorokhi observation and summarize all European observations of this nightjar species outside its breeding range.
Pioneering pilot spring count in Batumi 2019
Spring migration in Batumi? We would love to show you what that looks like, but we don’t really know. All we know for certain is that birds will be going in the opposite direction, somewhat like in the video below. But how many? And when? No idea.
During the last 11 years we have collected an immense amount of data about autumn migration in the Batumi bottleneck, but what happens in spring remains largely unknown. This is the knowledge gap we intend to fill in spring 2019.
If pioneering a pilot spring count would be something you would like to do, please contact us via volunteer@batumiraptorcount.org and we will get back to you with more detailed information.
PS. As this is a pilot count, there will be much fewer people on the station with no official team of coordinators present. Hence, each counter has more responsibilities and should preferably (though not necessarily) have previous experience with (raptor) migration counts. Contrary to our autumn counts, there is no strict minimum or maximum number of days you can join us.
EDIT April 6th, 2019: The spring count is fully underway. We are still in need of volunteers (especially from halfway April onwards). If you just want to see the season totals, have a look at our live migration count data.
EDIT April 14th, 2019: The first spring count update has been published. We are still — urgently — looking for volunteers to cover the period from halfway April onwards, during which we expect thousands of Montagu’s Harriers and hundreds of thousands of Honey Buzzards.
New raptor watch platform
Now that the minister of Finance and Economy of Adjara has announced the construction of the new raptor watch platform, we are proud to spread the word. Station 1 is getting a massive update under impulse and coordination of the Tourism department.
BRC was consulted long before construction plans were made final. We were asked for as much input as possible to optimize facilities to create a comfortable raptor watch platform. We are very pleased and thankful to be involved in this project and we hope everyone will enjoy it! Please come and check out the new raptor watch platform next autumn!
