Abstract

Since 2008, the Batumi Raptor Count project has monitored the autumn migration of raptors at Batumi, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea in southwest Georgia. What started as an expedition by young birders has become an invaluable project for monitoring raptor populations in the little-studied east African–Palearctic flyway. Autumn raptor migration through the Batumi bottleneck is notable for globally important concentrations of Honey-buzzards Pernis apivorus, Montagu’s Circus pygargus, Pallid C. macrourus and Marsh Harriers C. aeruginosus and accounts for at least 1% of the global breeding population of ten raptor species. By stimulating migration-based ecotourism, the project has had a significant economic impact on the communities where the count stations are located, which has increased societal and political support to reduce the widespread illegal raptor shooting in the region; it has also developed an important educational role for schoolchildren and older students. This paper summarises the 12-year history of the Batumi Raptor Count, and provides a detailed description of a typical autumn migration season. The project aims to expand its education and conservation remit while continuing to monitor one of the world’s biggest raptor migration bottlenecks.IntroductionThey were bewildering times when we ran the first Batumi Raptor Count along the eastern shore of the Black Sea in southwestern Georgia in 2008. The European Commission cancelled our funding because an armed conflict plagued this former Soviet country; commuting to the count stations proved to be a daily battle against the elements and poor infrastructure; and birdwatching and ecotourism were still alien concepts to most Georgians. Starting a long-term raptor migration monitoring project at Batumi may have been an act of youthful naivety and ambition but, when our first full-season count of more than 800,000 raptors was made public, along with our reports of widespread illegal raptor shooting in the region, the response of birders, conservationists and the scientific community was overwhelming. Now, more than a decade later, the Batumi Raptor Count has developed into one of the world’s largest migration watch-sites, attracting more than 60 citizen scientists and hundreds of international visitors every autumn, and working with local communities, conservationists, the education sector and government bodies towards sustainable use and adequate protection of migrating raptors.