Photos © Emil Lundahl
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A Swedish birding group monitored the spectacular migration at
Besh Barmag for a few days during the week 25-30 October. The group was
from the youth committee of Swedish BirdLife on an initiative and
leadership by me. We also met up with a local NGO, Nature Friends, that
joined us for a day trip to Shirvan Nationalpark and also for dinner in
Baku. We used a private home stay in the village of Qala Alty, about 30
mins driving northwest from Besh Barmag.
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| Swedish birder in steppe surroundings at Besh |
In
Besh Barmag we used the observation point from previous field studies
(about 5 km north of the shops and cafés below the rock) and tried to
count all migrating birds from dawn till lunch. The migration corridor
is several kilometers wide and hundreds of passerines pass every minute
but we got a fair grip of the numbers. Easily quarter of a million birds
passed during our three field days 26-28 Oct with the majority being
Starlings (nearly 100.000 on both 27 and 28 Oct) and also tens of
thousands of larks (12.900 Calandra Larks on 27 Oct) and corvids. Also
in their thousands were Pygmy Cormorants, dabbling ducks and Corn
Buntings. Among the many highlights on migration were late records of
Black-winged Pratincole (2), Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (2), a Short-toed
Eagle and hundreds of Ruddy Shelducks, Great White Egrets and Short-toed
Larks.
.
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| 1000+ Calandra Larks resting on the steppe in addition to the thousands on migration |
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| Spoonbill |
Searching through the steppe areas,
coastal bush lands and marshes, the rubbish tip and the beach was
equally exciting, if not even more so. With migration going on most of
the day and lots of birds also resting, its a conflict of interest...
Resident in the area during our days were 40+ Black Vultures, 5 Imperial
Eagles, a 1cy Steppe Eagle, some 60 Little Bustards, 1000+ Caspian
Gulls (among which we found a 1cy Great Black-headed Gull by scanning
the photos afterwards...) and in the bush land many Red-breasted
Flycatchers, Chiffchaffs, two Mountain Chiffchaffs, Moustached
Warblers, hemprichii Stonechats and Bearded and Long-tailed Tits. Along
the marshy lagoon were two Spotted Crakes, Jack Snipes, a Bittern (!), a
Citrine Wagtail and to top off this amazing place were a fine male
Desert Wheatear (about the 5th recent record for Azerbaijan) on the beach and a
Yellow-browed
Warbler in the bushes along the beach - a first for Azerbaijan!
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| Mountain Chiffchaff |
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| Jack Snipe |
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| Black Vulture |
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| Moustached Warbler common along the wet part of the bush land/lagoon |
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| A fine male Desert Wheatear on the beach at Besh |
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| A putative tristis Chiffchaff...? |
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| Some 60 Little Bustards rested in the steppe at Besh |
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| hemprichii Siberian Stonechat |
A
day trip on 29 Oct to Shirvan Nationalpark was also very nice with for
example 9 Bewick´s Swan, 63 Marbled Ducks, 18 Ferrugineous Ducks, 9 Hen
Harriers, 12 Purple Swamphens, 2 White-tailed Lapwings, both
Short-eared, Long-eared and Little Owls and a Citrine Wagtail. A short
visit inland to Haji Gaboul showed us a dried-out lake with a thousand
dabbling ducks standing at a tiny pool in the middle of the vast lake
and some gulls and waders around, notably a
1cy Black-legged Kittiwake
which would probably be only the third record for Azerbaijan. Also a
flock of 45 Little Bustards near the lake.
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| A pair of Little Owls at the Shirvan entrance |
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| 62 Marbled Ducks among dabbling ducks outside the hide in the flamingo lake, Shirvan NP |
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| Spoonbill, GW Egret and Grey Herons |
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| Black Francolin in Shirvan |
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| This 1cy Black-legged Kittiwake was found at the lake Haji Gaboul |
All
in all a short, intensive and very successful birding trip that shows
how amazing and easy just a short birding break can be to this place.
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