The first Little Buntings for Azerbaijan and other nice eastern species at Besh Barmag

Text © Pia Fetting

Little Bunting (juvenile) © Pia Fetting

In the first half of October rain and a low cloud cover brought some real ornithological goodies to the study site!

• An Oriental Skylark was heard in the fields on 7th of October and luckily sound recorded the day after: http://www.xeno-canto.org/389517

• The second Yellow-browed Warbler for Azerbaijan was heard calling on 12th of October close to one of our nets, unfortunately without any records.

• The first documented record of Little Bunting for Azerbaijan: One juvenile was trapped on 13th of October! Later that day even two birds were calling close to the camp site. One was also observed on 14th October.

Despite it is difficult to count the migrating birds during our bird ringing, we try our very best to count at least the more attractive species. At the moment migrating Little Bustards are a regular sight. So far 5519 individuals headed south with a peak of 4398 birds on 12th of October (check: http://trektellen.nl/count/view/1533/20171012). More will surely come within the next weeks.

Flock of migrating Little Bustards © Jonas Buddemeier