Birding Azerbaijan: November 2018

Text © Michael Hoit

Bird counters at the spot © Michael Heiß

Avian migration is a truly amazing natural phenomenon. The mass long-distance movement of birds across the world is quite familiar to most, but is still somehow underappreciated and taken for granted by many. To some of us, at least, it is inherently exciting and endlessly fascinating – both in scale, and in how individual species manage the feat. There are just a handful of places where observers can witness migration on a huge scale, and recently I was fortunate to visit one of them.

Many such places have been subject to long-term study (such as Cape May, in the USA), while others still very much have a frontier feel. Besh Barmag is definitely in the latter category; despite several years of visits by diligent ornithologists, it still feels like the possibilities are almost unlimited. At least in part, this is down to location – being at the intersection of Europe and Asia, this opens up a huge number of potential species that will capture the imagination of most birders from further west in the continent! Like all great migration watchpoints, what makes the site special is the geography of the area; the eastern end of the Caucasus mountain range juts across the flat coastal plain of the Caspian Sea, funnelling birds into a ‘bottleneck’. Anything not wanting to ascend over the hills of cross the sea will, with luck, pour past the count site at this narrow spot, especially in certain weather conditions.

The bottleneck area as seen from Mount Besh Barmag © Michael Hoit

Backside of Mount Besh Barmag © Björn Malmhagen

Counters, tourists and the shelter © Michael Heiß

All that dry theory is well and good, but it doesn’t really convey the excitement of being in this unique spot. At least part of that is because of the sheer unpredictability of migration. Trying to make an informed guess at what birds the day ahead holds is something that all birders do, even if we mostly get it wrong. At Besh Barmag, it proved almost impossible – not that it stopped us! For example, one of the more exciting days was on 1^st November (counts here), when ducks and geese flooded past all day, and nearly 12,000 Skylarks arrived from the sea and covered the fields, feeding while still soaked. The following week, with similar miserable weather conditions, the counters were primed for a repeat, and what did we get? A fairly quiet sea, and over 200 Marsh Harriers in the first couple of hours! Ultimately it was another spectacular day, as large waterbirds staged an appearance en masse from early afternoon (6^th November). Swans, geese and Great Egrets passed just overhead, and I was ‘lucky’ enough to be counting Great Cormorants as 10,000 flew by in a couple of hours (and my thumb is still recovering). Whatever the weather forecast, we never knew what was in store, which is a good motivation for the early starts!

Good start into the day - heron migration at its best © Michael Heiß

30 minutes later came another massive flock © Michael Heiß

Great White Egrets with Spoonbill © Michael Heiß

Great White Egret with Little Egret © Michael Heiß

Flock of Little Bustard © Sébastien Roques

Almost daily sights of this beautiful species © Michael Heiß

With sometimes really close views © Simon Carrington

Two Rooks and one Greater Flamingo © Michael Heiß

Probably the same 8 adult Bewick's Swans were seen by a German birding group near Khinaliq in the Greater Caucasus above 3000m asl before they arrived about 30 minutes later at the couting station. How cool is that! © Sébastien Roques

Over eighteen days of migration counts, the highlights of my trip are too many to mention. From a personal perspective, few individual sightings stand out. On my first full day, we were treated to a flypast by a stunning tawny-coloured female ‘Steppe’ Merlin, a taxon I’ve missed on previous trips (we saw at least one more of these smart birds); picking out my first White-winged Lark from a migrating flock of Calandras was incredibly satisfying and a memory that’s going to last. And I don’t think anyone present on 30^th October will forget the moment late in the morning when ‘big bustard!’ was called flying in from the sea – as it turned south, it became clear it was a stunning male MacQueen’s Bustard, which landed close to the watchpoint. Probably the most unexpected sighting of the 2018 season… However, the main draw of Besh Barmag are the big days, massive counts of species (such as the wildfowl above). 5^th November was a good one – after impressive numbers of corvids and starlings, we suddenly were in the middle of a surprise movement of Bramblings, with over 5,700 flying north late morning (https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/1533/20181105). On a number of days, a big flock of pelicans – mostly Dalmatian, but a few Great Whites – appeared, while any incoming large flock of Little Bustards guaranteed excitement. My first taste of bustard migration came on the morning of 28^th October, which was also notable for awesome flocks of ardeidae – and not just by day. A fixture of the days at Besh Barmag were remaining until darkness, awaiting the spectacle of heron migration; a remarkable number of Great Bitterns can often rise from the bushes, call as they circle into the dusk sky, and head south. Waiting and squinting into the half-light was soon christened “staying until the Bittern end”…

Incrediable atmosphere with counters coming from Sweden, Estonia, France, Germany, England and Azerbaijan © Michael Heiß

A Black-bellied Sandgrouse bumped into the counting team © Christoph Himmel

Occaisonally 30-40 birdwatchers were at the counting station © Michael Heiß

A "big bustard"... © Simon Carrington

A MacQueen's Bustard just landed south of the counting station. Well seen by the lucky counters © Michael Heiß

...but was flushed by some cows later © Michael Heiß

Buff-bellied Pipits occur in small numbers at Besh Barmag © Björn Malmhagen

Pine Bunting is another of the 'eastern goodies' © Björn Malmhagen

...also Pallas's Gull © Simon Carrington

Dalmatian and White Pelican © Michael Hoit

The same pelican flock © Michael Heiß

Chris and Micha at dusk © Michael Hoit

Counters waiting for the "Bittern end" © Michael Heiß

Who will find the first bittern of the evening? © Michael Heiß

Two Great Bittern close-by © Michael Heiß

Flock of seven Great Bittern © Michael Heiß

In total, almost 900,000 birds of nearly 160 species were counted passing during my stay; during this period, we passed the two million bird milestone for the season, and no. 3,000,000 can’t be far off. These numbers and the above diversity must qualify Besh as the best VisMig (visible migration) site in the Western Palearctic region. This isn’t just for fun either. The project is contributing to the count data along a migration flyway which until recently had been neglected – the chance of new discoveries combined with proper science!

With Full French Force: Anthony, Sébastien, Gaby © Michael Heiß

Helpful Gunay © Björn Malmhagen

Busy Gunay © Michael Heiß

We love bird migration © Michael Heiß

Thousands of Great Cormorants were counted © Michael Heiß

Another flock of Great Cormorant © Michael Heiß

Who is counting Starlings? © Michael Heiß

Often the sky was filled with Starlings and Gunay busy again © Michael Heiß

Common Starling was the most abundant species © Michael Heiß

Migrating birds in all directions © Michael Heiß

Often you hear just clicking sounds from the counters © Michael Heiß

Calandra Larks were common as well © Michael Heiß

Often mixed with Skylarks © Björn Malmhagen

This exhausted Skylark reached the beach after it probably crossed the Caspian Sea © Christoph Himmel

Two Merlins fighting for a preyed lark © Michael Heiß

Another Merlin feeding on a lark © Michael Heiß

In case the afternoon migration is too slow for you, feel free to play with alien critters © Michael Hoit

Or try to find a Jungle Cat © Sébastien Roques

One of my favourite aspects of participating in a count like this is the chance to hone knowledge and skills. Even the most experienced birders cannot fail to learn something - assuming, of course, you approach things with an open mind, and pay attention to your count colleagues! There’s a constant chat regarding identification, ageing and how best to record birds, and a wealth of information being shared. I didn’t know, for example, of the diagnostic difference in flock structure between Great and Pygmy Cormorants: we’re all familiar with the Vs and straggling lines of the former, but the ‘loose’, chaotic and Rook-like look of groups of the latter was new to me! This is what you get from a multi-national, knowledgeable team of migration counters. Many were previous graduates of the (for now) more well-known Batumi Raptor count, and some of us had surveyed together in the past, but the differences are quite marked. At Batumi, the count protocol is quite rigid, do deal with the various streams of birds of prey; here, the methods are a little more freeform: the huge diversity of species to count and, as previously mentioned, the unpredictability of each day, make this a necessity. Which of these two locations is better? This sort of thing will always be down to personal preference, and some might suggest the range of different species and types of migration (raptors, VisMig, seawatching...) edges Besh ahead – although I couldn’t possibly comment…

There are so many other things that I could ramble on about – Azerbaijan is such a fascinating and welcoming place. Daytrips to the remarkable natural features (mud volcanoes!), the rock art, the abundant wildlife (the on-site jirds deserve a blog of their own…) are all worth mentioning, but ultimately, Besh Barmag is about the birds. If you’re willing to put in the long hours of concentration and contribute to a team effort, the rewards of immersing yourself in the migration spectacle are tremendous, an experience not to be missed!

The final word must go to the people who really make the visit what it is. The brilliant count team were such a pleasure to spend time with (and we spent a lot of time together), and were so easy to get along with. Special thanks, though must go to Micha, Chris and Kai for their hard work as coordinators and commitment to getting count data – I’m not entirely sure when they slept; Gunay for entering record after record into the tablet, often with several people trying to get her attention simultaneously and talking too fast (mainly me); Rovshan for his endless logistics work; and last, but definitely not least, Miryusif for the non-stop delicious food (I definitely don’t know when he sleeps). Between you guys, the only thing I had to think about was which of the delicious selection of jams was going onto my lavash. Hopefully, I’ll see you all again soon!

Sonntag, 18. November 2018

Late October / early November impressions by Michael Hoit