10 December 2022: Last day of the counting season at Besh Barmag

Yesterday was the final day of the season at Besh Barmag bird migration bottleneck. Many people from across Azerbaijan, Europe and America visited and enjoyed this awesome place. Even more people were involved in arranging, organising and sponsoring this 3.5-month long event with daily counts from sunrise to sunset. To all of them a big ‘THANK YOU’!

And what is better in this situation to cite the final Trektellen comment of the main counter Gabi Caucal:

….Icing on the cake with to finish, a group of 7 Bewick´s Swan´s 15 minutes after the sunset, the last data of this amazing December period! Last data of this amazing season overall my friends!!! Indeed, it is the end after 101 consecutive days of monitoring, 1.845.468 birds in active migration to the south and some thousands in stopover of 271 species! In examples, this season was this flock of more than 600 Black-winged Pratincoles circling above Besh Barmag end of September, this group of 70 Steppe Eagles along the Caucasus ridges mid-October, this group of more than 3000 Little Bustards overhead mid-November and to finish these flocks of hundred Pallas´s Gulls in December! We still learnt a lot about this wonderful bottleneck! Without the different teams present all the season long, all of these results would not have been as rich! So, it’s definitely a time to say a great thank you in first to Elvin Məmmədsoy, his constant motivation/energy to build this project on the field before to begin, during the count and hopefully for the future my friend!! In second Michael Heiß for the hard work 10 years ago when almost nothing were known here, his nice knowledge sharing about many things here, his constant support on the field and from Germany, this wonderful moments of fun on the station in October! In third, off course to all of the counters from 1st September to 10 December : Abdin Abbasov , Leyla Muslim (thanks a lot for your help, your constant kindness), Zülfü Fərəcli (please “appear again” “), Gunay Bahramzada, Sebastian Andrejeff (hoooopaaaaa), Tomas Swahn, Patrick Weber, Adrien de Montaudouin (“hey guys, I have a line of hundreds of Grey Herons far away !!), Philip Elbek (“take a picture !”), Dennis Heynckes (“awesome season der freund”), Andreas Kristian Pedersen, Malik Debbaoui (for ever “Starling Man”), Christopher Stamp (for ever “Captain Rook”), Art Villem Adojaan (for ever “Cormorants man”), Max Baumgarten (“are you French ?”), Oscar Campbell, Laura Siever, Matt Daw (alias Pipit man), Colin Davison, Kai Gauger, Valtteri Salonen, Pekka Suhonen, Christoph Himmel (“Chaffinches man “), Tomas Axén Haraldsson, Christian Roesti, Måns Karlsson, Kit Mermagen, Pia Fe and Patrick Styles! Great thanks also to Jafar (hostel organization) and our locals drivers Anar and Atamoglan for their support all the season long! Besh Barmag is great thanks to the teams’ composition, very diverse like the birds here finally! Long life to this project, VIVA BESH BARMAAAAG for ever my friends!!!!