Text & Photos © Christoph Himmel Mixed flock of Kentish-, Ringed Plovers, Collared Pratincole and Little Stints Now my time in Azerbaijan comes to an end and I prepare to go back to Germany. Besides my counts during the last weeks, I also examined some specimens at the Zoological Museum of the Institute of Zoology… Continue reading Finish of the wader study at Gyzylagach
Text & Photos © Pia Fetting Mist-nets at sunrise Arriving in Azerbaijan in the middle of August, the first days were used for organisational issues and meetings. I finally started bird ringing on the 20th of August. This month is rather hot with temperatures of more than 30°C during daytime and never below 20°C at… Continue reading First two weeks of bird ringing at Besh Barmag
Text & Photos © Christoph Himmel This is the second blog post about my wader project in Azerbaijan and after nearly two months of fieldwork, I have to say I’m quite overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of waders, especially in Gyzylagach State Reserve. After my friends Stella and Sönke had left some weeks ago, I… Continue reading Pacific Golden Plover and more
Text & Photo © Christoph Himmel During my wader counts at Lake Machmudchala I discovered two interesting Penduline Tits, which somehow look like Black-headed Penduline Tits (Remiz macronyx) or at least like hybrids. Both had blackish heads with a various amount of grey feathers in the nape. Unfortunately, the plumage was heavily worn. One bird… Continue reading Black-headed Penduline Tits?
Text & Photo © Christoph Himmel 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… Continue reading First impressions of a wader study at the Caspian coast
© Emil Lundahl & Pia Fetting The Besh Barmag bottleneck near Siyezen (coordinates: 40°59'N, 49°13'E) has recently been identified as a major flyway, where high concentrations of migrating birds are funneled through a narrow coastal plain between the Greater Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. The existence of a bottleneck was proven in extensive field studies… Continue reading Volunteers needed: Bird ringing at Besh Barmag
You have probably heard about Batumi Raptor Count in Georgia, but do you know Besh Barmag in Azerbaijan? Where Batumi is situated at the western end of the Caucasus, Besh Barmag is its counterpart at the eastern end. A bottleneck for migrating birds between the Caucasus mountains and the Caspian Sea that is just being… Continue reading Besh Barmag Bird Migration Counts 4-18 November 2017
Text © Pia Fetting Between the 21st and 23rd of April, the meanwhile second larger international Bird Camp at the famous Besh Barmag bottleneck in Azerbaijan took place. Like the last Bird Camp in September 2016 it was again gratefully and excellent organised by NatureFriends Azerbaijan, SOF BirdLife (the Swedish BirdLife partner) and AOS (Azerbaijan… Continue reading Bird Camp Besh Barmag April 2017
Text © Christoph Himmel The western Caspian coast of Azerbaijan is an important stop-over site for migrating waders, with Gyzylagach State Reserve holding the highest numbers of them. Despite the importance of this area it is under-surveyed, as the last counts took part in 1990. According to recent publications, 53% of the wader species of… Continue reading Crowdfunding for research on waders in Gyzylagach
Two Long-billed Dowitchers were discovered on an exploratory winter field trip on 31 January 2017 near Narimanabad (Kizil Agach). This is the first known record of this species for Azerbaijan. The trip was guided by Jos van Oostveen from Kaukasus Plus Reizen. Congratulations! Long-billed Dowitcher © Jos van Oostveen Rear view © Jos van Oostveen… Continue reading First record of Long-billed Dowitcher for Azerbaijan
Birding Azerbaijan 