Text & Photo © Christoph Himmel
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| Greater
Sandplover at Neftcala beach |
This blog
post will introduce you to a research project about waders in the area of
Gyzylagach (southeastern Azerbaijan). It gives you brief insights into the fieldwork and informs about
nice sightings and numbers of waders.
The aim of
this project is to update the old numbers from 1984/85 by A.O. Shubin. This
project covers nearly the whole autumn migration period of waders from July to
October 2017. Furthermore, it is planned to catch and equip eastern Black-tailed
Godwits with satellite transmitters and search for the Steppe Whimbrel (subspecies
N. p. alboaxillaris). For a detailed
description please visit: http://www.waderquest.org/2017/04/research-on-waders-in-one-of-last-under.html
The journey
began on 4 July when I arrived with my friend Stella in Baku. In the first days
we were just birding for fun in Shirvan and Gobustan national park, Talysh
mountains and Zuvand region. On 8 July Sönke arrived and the team was complete.
Since then
we started exploring potential sites for shorebird counts along the coast and
also did some additional bush- and steppe birding to get some local breeding
birds.
We decided
to count on three sites in the Gyzylagach area: a beach near Neftchala, Machmudchala
wetland complex and the nearby fishponds and at the beaches of Narimanabad.
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| Map of the study area |
Highlights of the first two weeks of counting
were some incredible numbers for western European standards with flocks of at
least 1600 Marsh Sandpipers, some nice sightings of Terek Sandpipers, Greater
Sandplovers, impressive 43 Caspian Plovers, the second Grey Phalarope
for Azerbaijan and a sighting of a Pectoral Sandpiper.
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| Terek
Sandpiper at Neftcala beach |
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| Nice
variety of waders in Gyzylagach |
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| Relaxed
Caspian Plovers |
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| Wader paradise Gyzylagach |
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| Mixed
flock of Black-tailed Godwits and Eurasian Curlews |
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| Grey Phalarope (right) - A true highlight and only the second record for Azerbaijan |
Unfortunately,
the permission for trapping and tagging Black-tailed Godwits has not been
granted so far but I will try to get the permission at least for the next year as
long I am doing the fieldwork in Azerbaijan.
But nevertheless, I am quite exited of what the
next few weeks will bring to Gyzylagach and the nearby beaches.
