Batumi count ends after 71 days: a Rough-legged Buzzard and a Caucasus viper on the last day
Batumi Raptor Count closed its autumn 2026 count on 21 October. The last day brought the season’s second Rough-legged Buzzard, three Wallcreepers and a basking Caucasus viper.
The autumn raptor count at the Batumi bottleneck ended on 21 October 2026, after 71 days. Both stations were staffed on the final day. Numbers were modest, but migration was steady and diverse. The record of the day was a Rough-legged Buzzard: rare in Batumi, and only the second of the season.
What was the last day like?
For 71 days the counters scanned the Batumi sky every day: grey or blue, windy or rainy, full of birds or empty. October brought many empty skies, so the final day felt like a gamble to many. On 21 October, though, both stations had a good day. Numbers were not high, which the team counts as a good sign: nobody wanted to leave with migration in full swing.
Steppe Buzzards (Buteo buteo vulpinus) and Black kites (Milvus migrans) dominated the streams, as usual. A handful of Hen Harriers (Circus cyaneus), Long-legged Buzzards (Buteo rufinus) and Peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) joined them. The team said goodbye to most of the species it counts under its protocol one last time.
Rough-legged Buzzard, Wallcreeper and a viper
The rarest bird of the day was a Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus). Batumi Raptor Count has only a few records of the species, and this was the second of the season. The same day brought three sightings of Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria). This small bird is not a raptor, but the team listed it alongside the raptors among the day’s records.
A reptile joined the raptors too: a basking Caucasus viper (Vipera kaznakovi) was seen by the station. Vipers are venomous, so if you come across one basking in the sun, watch it from a distance and do not touch it.
No season total yet
Batumi Raptor Count has not yet published its final 2026 numbers. They will appear in the autumn report. The season’s big days are already known: the count passed one million on 27 September, and on 4 October 239,735 raptors were counted in a single day, the second-biggest day in the count’s history. Both stories and other news from the season are in the news section.
Dozens of volunteers from around the world ran the count, and others helped from afar. The team thanks its sponsors, including Kite Optics and OSME, and independent donors. Special thanks go to the Georgian host families who gave the counters good food and a cosy place to stay. The team’s post signs off in Georgian: “didi madloba”, many thanks.
The first bird camp and two school clubs
On 20 October, a day before the count ended, Batumi Raptor Count published the results of its first bird camps. Twenty-five teenagers chosen from schools in Adjara took part in two groups of 13 and 12 students. Each group’s camp lasted three days. Students heard talks from experts, watched documentaries about conservation work in other countries and about poaching threats in the region, and played team games.
Part of the camp took place at the Sakhalvasho station, one of the count’s two main stations. Students used binoculars to watch kettles and streams of raptors, picking out plumage and shape. They also tried spotting scopes and hand counters, or “clickers”, to see how the count works. At the end, small groups presented what they had learned in their own way.
After the camp, two students started bird clubs at their own schools. Between the two camps, the education team met more than 25 teachers from schools around the Batumi bottleneck. Migrating raptors and other birds are on the birds hub, and Georgia’s snakes on the snakes hub.
