⏳ Just 7 days to apply for the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship Spend a month at Batumi Raptor Count, learning hands-on migration monitoring in one of the world’s largest raptor flyways. Fully funded travel + acco. Open to conservationists in OSME region. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶🦅

Our 2026 Flyway Monitoring Traineeship is open for applications from raptor enthusiasts living in the OSME region. Learn all about raptor migration, identification and what it takes to run a count like the BRC, and receive up to €1300 to cover costs. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶

Call for Counters! Join BRC in Autumn 2026 to witness the magnificent migration of >1 million raptors, improve your ID skills, and contribute to population monitoring! Fees: €10-24/day with discounts available! Read more & apply here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/volunteer-as-raptor-migration-counter

NEW PUBLICATION! Long time coming — now out: the results of our pilot spring raptor counts in Batumi! Read about seasonal contrasts in raptor migration, the eastern Black Sea coast as a principal spring flyway, and much more. 🦅 Paper: doi.org/10.5253/arde... #ornithology @batumiraptorcount.org

Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out! As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people! 👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025

A typical Batumi migration scene, illustrating the idea of an ‘aerial niche’. For Steppe Buzzards in our bottleneck, that niche is often somewhere between the clouds: great to watch, tricky to count. Fascinating paper by @cnilsson.science et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

It’s a wrap! 🎉 Today marked the final day of #BRC17! What an unforgettable season it’s been: records broken with countless surprises and memories made. All the details will be included in our upcoming autumn report, which will be released soon. Keep an eye on our social media to stay up-to-date.

1.5 MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅🤯 For the first time in BRC history, we have recorded a staggering 1.5 million raptors in a single autumn season — a true milestone after 17 years of counting! Read more here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/brc17/2025/10/15-million-raptors #ornithology #RaptorResearch

Taklng a break from work and my usual environment to count migrating raptors and storks with @batumiraptorcount.org. I am making new friends from all over tthe world. Enjoying great food prepared by our hosts. #amazinggeorgia #ecotourism #shuamta #sakhalvasho #raptorwatchpoint.

Live from the field! The 1,422,172nd bird — a juvenile Black Kite flying through the misty clouds — crossed our transect line this afternoon, making 2025 the BIGGEST year in BRC history!! Stay tuned for more!

170K raptors! 🤯 8 yrs in the making, but I’ve finally witnessed a 100k+ raptors day while on the station actually counting the bulk of it. Incredible experience. Still feeling cross-eyed from staring through the scope non-stop for almost 10hrs. 📸: the Shuamta team at the end of this incredible day

Topteam!!!

170.000 RAPTORS IN ONE DAY! After yesterday’s heavy rain and a quiet morning, today the sky exploded with Steppe Buzzards and large eagles! Continuing from 10 am until almost the end of the count. At some point, we counted over 14.000 raptors in less than 20 minutes. THAT'S BATUMI! #ornithology

After the thrill of reaching the million, we went straight to the peak of diversity. The challenge of counting high numbers of birds slowly shifted into identifying the (relatively) fewer but more difficult ones: the large eagle species! But they also brought a special guest along...👇 1/2

A true Bluesky — filled with raptors! After days of rain, we were greeted by a bright, blue, cloudless sky this morning! The result? Thousands of birds and a high species diversity. With the main message: the eagles are coming! Stay tuned for more! For daily totals: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data

Astounding for the @batumiraptorcount.org crew to reach the 1 million milestone so early in the season. 😳 Congrats to all volunteers and flyway trainees, expertly led by the first ever all-women coordinating team: Eva Drukker, Elien Hoekstra and Mitra Daneshvar. Celebrations are in order! 🤩

ONE MILLION RAPTORS! The wait is over... Today #BRC17 hit the earliest 1-million mark in BRC history! Usually, this happens around end-September, but this year the raptors clearly had other plans. And with still over a month to go, we expect plenty more to come! 1/2 #ornithology #RaptorResearch

The Honey Buzzards keep on coming! With another 50K+ counted today, we’ve now passed half a million HBs this season! Rising numbers of Black Kites — as their peak is still ahead — pushed our overall total past 700K! And it’s not just the bulk species 👇 #ornithology 📸Eduardo C. Wals 1/2

A new study led by @moveandconserve.bsky.social used GPS tracking to test the monitoring potential of Eilat and Batumi. An invaluable step toward linking counted birds to their origins, but we found it needed some elaboration from a migration count perspective! Our commentary: tinyurl.com/nnbzu7kc

HALF A MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅 After a few slower days (~30K+), #BRC17 hit the absolute jackpot yesterday! Around 11 am, the floodgates opened — massive streams of Honey Buzzards & Black Kites pushed us past 100K raptors in a single day! Bringing the season total to 540K😍 🧵1/3 Video by Zülfü Farajli

We are off! The #BRC17 count has officially started! Until Oct 21st, we'll be counting 1+ million raptors. 🤞🪶 For the first time in years, we'll be posting many of the posts on our main social media channels to our website — and via our website also here. www.batumiraptorcount.org/brc17/2025/8...

BRC at the Avian Odyssey 2025! Join the British Ornithologists’ Club at the Natural History Museum, London, on 20 Sept. @tohar-tal.bsky.social will share how BRC monitors and conserves the migration of 1M+ raptors in Georgia. Tickets (incl. online): www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/... 📸Marc Heetkamp

In less than two weeks, we’ll be back at the Batumi bottleneck for the 17th Batumi Raptor Count #BRC17. Preparations are well underway, and excitement is building. Over the next few months, we’ll have plenty of exciting news to share with you — it’s already shaping up to be another memorable season.

Meet our trainees! Motahareh from Iran, Yaren from Turkey and Leyla from Azerbaijan will join us as the 2025 cohort of the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship. We set up this traineeship program with OSME last year. Read more about the program and our trainees: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2025/7/...

Trying to figure out if we are doing what we think we are doing in migratory bird count surveys. Now the blog version: bou.org.uk/blog-efrat-w... @bou.org.uk @batumiraptorcount.org @yaelbird.bsky.social 🪶🐾🧪

Time flies! In less than 2 months, we'll be back at the Batumi bottleneck for the 70 best days of the year. From 12/08 to 21/10, we'll be counting >1 million raptors 🦅 again. #BRC17 🪶 We're thrilled that all volunteer positions this year are filled. There's a waiting list for those still dreaming:

Would you like to experience mind-boggling raptor migration by helping us count over 1 million raptors this autumn? Yes? Perfect! Because volunteer slots for both some long-term and plenty of short-term positions of 2 weeks are still available. But, there is more...👇 1/2

Our new Flyway Monitoring Traineeship is open for applications from raptor enthusiasts living in the OSME region. Learn all about raptor migration, identification and what it takes to run a count like the BRC, and receive up to €1300 to cover costs. www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2025/4/... 🪶

Are you or do you know someone who would like to count 1+ million raptors with us this autumn? Join us for an absolutely unforgettable experience! We'll be responding to applications around the 15th of the month, so now is the perfect time to apply. #birdmigration #ornithology #raptors #addBirder

Are you or do you know someone who would like to count 1+ million raptors with us this autumn? Join us for an absolutely unforgettable experience! We'll be responding to applications around the 15th of the month, so now is the perfect time to apply. #birdmigration #ornithology #raptors #addBirder

Raptor rapture in Georgia Ian Lycett discusses a memorable few days at Batumi in September 2024, where tens of thousands of birds of prey filled the skies:

Call for Counters! Join BRC in autumn 2025 to witness the magnificent migration of >1 million raptors, improve your ID skills, and contribute to population monitoring! Fees: €10-24/day with discounts available! Read more & apply here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/volunteer-as-raptor-migration-counter

Soaring to success: We reached our €30,000 crowdfunding goal for Autumn 2025! We are delighted and proud to announce that — thanks to your incredible generosity once again! — we have reached €30,000 to fund our work in the upcoming year! Read more here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2025/2/...

Will your donation bring us across the finish line? Thanks to the incredible support we received in recent days, we are now tantalizingly close to reaching our crowdfunding target of €30.000! Learn more about our work and how to support us here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/support 1/2

Today is International #WomenInScience Day! In 2025, for the first time, the autumn count will have a women-led coordinator team! We encourage everyone to volunteer —applications open in March once funding is secured. Hear from past volunteers 👉 www.batumiraptorcount.org/testimonials

We're almost there! We have now raised €26.500 of our €30.000 target for the 2025 autumn count. Only €3.500 more to continue our vital monitoring, education, and conservation work in the Batumi bottleneck! 🙏 Support us today! ➡️ www.batumiraptorcount.org/support

This year, we launched our Flyway Traineeship Program, funded by @_OSME! We welcomed Mitra Daneshvar (Iran) and Alyona Kaptyonkina (Kazakhstan) as our first trainees, as they joined the autumn count and learned to run and coordinate a standardized raptor monitoring project... 1/3

Thanks to generous people, our fundraiser has been steadily increasing this weekend! Let's keep the momentum going and help us reach the 30K target to secure the 2025 autumn migration count🙏🍀 If you haven’t done so yet, please consider supporting us: batumiraptorcount.org/support

Education by BRC! This year, we continued our education project at schools around the Batumi bottleneck.🧑‍🏫 We focussed on assisting educational centers that are working with our recently published education booklet to raise awareness about birds and the environment!🦅🍀 🧵1/3

Since launching the webshop, it has been so heartwarming to see all the support and orders coming in — thank you!💚 Let’s keep the momentum up by sharing our fundraising cause with your family, friends, and any bird lovers you know! 👉 www.batumiraptorcount.org/support

Spare a minute of your time to watch this short summary of what @batumiraptorcount.org does!🙏 Please consider supporting us: www.batumiraptorcount.org/support 🍀 #Ornithology #Birds #RaptorResearch #CitizenScience #BirdsOfPrey #BirdMigration #Crowdfunding @trektellen.bsky.social

Our webshop is open! Our webshop is not just about selling merchandise; it's about supporting a meaningful cause. Every purchase you make directly funds our project and supports our important monitoring and conservation work in the Batumi region! 👉 store.batumiraptorcount.org 1/2

In 2023, Heather Fortune joined our Autumn count during her "Fight for Flight" expedition, a year-long journey visiting bird conservation projects across Europe & Asia. She created an infographic on BRC volunteer demographics (2008–2023). Learn more: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2024/12...

Coordinators for 2025! For the first time in BRC history, we have an all-women coordinator team! Elien (NL), Eva (NL), and Mitra (Iran) are ready to lead the 17th Autumn count. However, we still need 9,000 EU to make it happen! 👉 www.batumiraptorcount.org/support

Together with Aslan Bolkvadze and Alexander Rukhaia, I was invited to write a guest blog for OSME about the immense hunting pressure threatening migratory birds in the Chorokhi Delta, republic of Georgia. Find out what's happening here ➡️ osme.org/2024/12/the-... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

Recommended read: The 2024 Autumn report is published! You can now read our extensive report of the past count season, packed with beautiful photos! Of course, don't forget to scroll down for the behind-the-scenes gallery! ➡️ www.batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-repor... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

Your support will help us continue our important raptor monitoring work in 2025! Visit the link below to read more about what we do and how your money will be put to use. ➡️ www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2024/12...

The @batumiraptorcount.org project monitors the annual passage of raptors in one of the world's principal flyways. This is possible only with the help of dedicated volunteers and generous donations. Check out how to support the project, and where we target our efforts here 👇🙏

Keep the Batumi Raptor Count flying high with your support! Your generosity will help us to continue our world-class monitoring in the Batumi bottleneck in 2025. Please read our full appeal here: 👉 www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2024/12...

Happy to say that this year's @batumiraptorcount.bsky.social Autumn Report will be bigger, better and more beautiful than ever. Coming soon. Making it has inspired me to share more of my #raptor #birdmigration photography here, so a teaser of some of the pictures I've contributed this year. 🪶🦅