This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Standing on a verdant hill above Georgia's Black Sea coast, ornithologist Bart Hoekstra looked out over one of the world's greatest wildlife spectacles unfolding before him—then gunshots pierced the air. Hoekstra co-chairs Batumi Raptor Count (BRC), an international volunteer organization that counts the million-plus birds of prey that fly the route every autumn, where the Black Sea and Caucasus mountains form a migration bottleneck.
"It's the third-largest place in the world in terms of raptor migration," said the 34-year-old Dutchman from Utrecht University. "Wherever you put your binoculars in the sky, there are birds." Honey buzzards dominate the early autumn passage, followed by growing numbers of black kites, steppe buzzards and lesser spotted eagles. As he spoke, rifles cracked incessantly across steep slopes cloaked in subtropical vegetation around the resort city of Batumi.
Around 9,000 of the birds are shot each autumn, according to a 2013 University of Antwerp study, the latest reliable estimate. Harriers are disproportionately vulnerable to shooting because they often fly low. "It's horrifying, honestly.
It's really heartbreaking every time you hear the shots and you never get used to it ... you always feel the pain," said Mitra Daneshvar, a count coordinator from Iran. "What truly hurts is when it's really rare species that get shot out of the sky," Hoekstra added. "And there's nothing you can do about it." Georgia's Environmental Supervision Department recorded 39 hunting violations in the region during the first month of this year's season, without specifying how many involved raptors.
It says it conducts round-the-clock patrols against illegal hunting, but Hoekstra said policing illegal shooting was difficult in the rugged hills around Batumi. The "Batumi bottleneck," as it is known, funnels raptors from Russia, Eastern Europe and Kazakhstan south as most head for Africa after breeding. The birds save energy by circling in the warm air that rises over land, avoiding the sea, while clouds in the Caucasus mountains can push them into a narrow corridor over Georgia's Black Sea coast.
From stations at Sakhalvasho—a village perched above the resort city of Batumi—and nearby Shuamta, deeper into the lush Georgian hills, BRC volunteers set about counting the number of birds making the annual journey. They start at sunrise, scanning with binoculars and telescopes. As a bird crosses an imaginary line, they click a handheld counter.
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