Photo & Text © Michael Heiß Bird migration count until darkness at Besh Barmag bottleneck. On a very few days in autumn you can witness the onset of nocturnal bittern migration. In the evening of 10 October 2022 34 Great Bittern, 50 Little Bittern and a few Grey and Purple Heron suddenly popped up and… Continue reading Great movements of herons on 10 October 2022 at Besh Barmag
Photos © Michael Heiß Another record of Black-throated Thrush at Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count today and a Little Bunting just yesterday! Also, good numbers of terns, herons, ducks, harriers, Spoonbills and Starlings on migration. Great time with Elvin Məmmədsoy, Gabi Caucal, Adrien de Montaudouin, Andreas Kristian Pedersen, Philip Elbek, Dennis Heynckes and Michael Heiß.… Continue reading Little Bunting, another Black-throated Thrush and much more at Besh Barmag
Photo © Philip Elbek To cite Gabi Caucal, our count coordinator: 'When there is nothing, there is something!' Overall, a pretty slow day at Besh Barmag with strong southerly winds and a lot of dust and sand in the eyes and binoculars of the counters, but a quick birding walk in the nearby shrubland produced… Continue reading Second Black-throated Trush for the Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count
Text © Gabi Caucal Photos © Philip Elbek, Elvin Məmmədsoy, Patrick Weber, Sebastian Andrejeff Although less present than the last season with the same methodology (2018), the Garganeys and Marsh Tens have marked the first days of the count. The nice day September 11th was definitely the peak day for these species with respectively 4214 Garganeys… Continue reading September summary of the Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count autumn 2022
Photos © Patrick Weber, Elshan Baba & Elvin Məmmədsoy Report of the second 10 days of the season at Besh! The last ten days saw more than 10.000 Garganey, 1000 Black-winged Pratincoles and days peaking at more than 90 species. The growing team is really motivated and already managed to pick up a new species… Continue reading Mid-September report of the Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count
The latest Sandgrouse issue contains an article about the occurrence of Caspian and Black-headed Penduline Tits in Azerbaijan by Michael Heiß and Christoph Himmel: https://osme.org/sandgrouse/sandgrouse-44-1/ Titel: Recent status of Caspian Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus caspius and Black-headed Penduline Tit Remiz (pendulinus) macronyx in Azerbaijan. Summary: Caspian Penduline Tit and Black-headed Penduline Tit are known from the literature to occur… Continue reading New insights into the occurrence of Penduline Tits in Azerbaijan published
Photos/video © Elvin Məmmədsoy (Camping Azerbaijan) Yesterday, the good old shelter arrived at the counting spot at Besh Barmag. This shelter will give home to about 25 counters from 10 countries until the end of November. Today's count results here: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/1533/20220911 https://videopress.com/v/i0Z1AATx?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true True pioneering spirit of a bird migration count site in the steppes of Azerbaijan
Text © Gabi Caucal Photos © Abdin Abbasov, Elvin Məmmədsoy (Camping Azerbaijan) The first days of the count were really enjoyable for the diversity with more than 70 species by session. We can mention these first day with more than 3000 Garganeys or several days with thousands of Terns! Recently, some other water birds were… Continue reading Report of the first 10 days of the season at Besh!
After so many years of waiting we are now happy to share the count results of the first day at Besh Barmag bottleneck: https://trektellen.nl/count/view/1533/20220901 Despite the very high temperatures of around 40°C Gabi and Elvin did a great job and logged migrating Slender-billed Gulls, Gull-billed Terns, Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, Rosy Starlings, Citrine Wagtails and a single… Continue reading Start of the Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count 2022
Since we have unfortunately experienced far less reservations and bookings of counters for the autumn count at Besh Barmag than previously expected, we had to reorganise and recalculate our plans to keep the count running and the daily fees at a moderate rate. This is a very tough decision for us, but we want to… Continue reading UPDATE: Call for Counters: Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count 2022
Birding Azerbaijan 