BRC 2019: August Photo Report
I’ve recently returned to The Netherlands from 85 amazing days in Georgia, coordinating the 12th season of the Batumi Raptor Count. It has been a fantastic, unforgettable season!
Like last year, I have decided to simply compile the best and/or most interesting photos per month from when I arrived on August 6th til when I left the country on October 26th. Identification pointers for photos are added frequently so counters for future seasons can ‘pre-prepare’ by going through the photos as well. Apologies for the large photos and a page that will probably load pretty slow. I hope the wait is worth it…
As you’ll see, August is not a very forgiving month in terms of light conditions for photography. It is really hit or miss. Either the skies are covered in thick clouds leaving nothing but silhouettes to be seen, or the skies are clear but the light is very harsh. Luckily, conditions improve massively in September and October…
The most complete overview of the past season, which will also go into detail about things not photographed, can be found in the Autumn Report of 2019 published on the BRC website.
I recommend going through the photo reports in chronological order:
August Photo Report
August 12th. For a change we start with insects, rather than birds. On the 12th of August, the first day of the count, we could experience absolutely incredible migration of dragonflies through the bottleneck. We did some short timed counts during which we counted ~100 dragonflies per minute on average crossing a short 10m transect line. Given that was a naked eye count and many of these insects passed simply out of naked-eye sight, and the bottleneck is 12 kilometers wide, it must have easily been many hundreds of thousands if not millions of dragonflies moving through the bottleneck that day.
August 12th. A sky loaded with dragonflies. Beware: this photo was shot at 400mm, so a photographer can imagine how many more dragonflies were not captured on this photo…
August 12th. Watch in 4k for full effect. Never before have I seen dragonfly migration at this scale. Very — very — impressive! Beware: every ‘dot’ is a dragonfly.
August 12th. Already on the first day of the season an adult male dark morph Marsh Harrier showed up. As usual: high up and in shitty light, but showing just enough to identify the color morph. This particular bird shows a very large white patch on the remiges, and a fairly thin dark trailing edge, but other than that it was a fairly typical dark morph.
August 18th. A few days later we had fairly good views of another adult male dark morph Marsh, but by the time the bird was close enough to photograph it properly, it was already a little too much ‘in’ the clouds (‘gloupsed’, in BRC lingo). This bird, contrary to the previous one (August 12th), shows a more typical light patch in the remiges.
August 18th. With many thousands of Montagu’s Harriers passing the bottleneck, you’d expect it would be easy to photograph a few as well. However, to this date I have never made satisfying photos of the non-juveniles of the species. This adult male was showing fairly good, but was still distant and the light was difficult to work with…
August 18th. Same bird as previous.
August 18th. Same bird as previous, showing why the single dark bar on the upperwing secondaries can be surprisingly difficult to see on distant birds (it’s only visible on 4 of the secondaries).
August 18th. Same bird as previous.
August 18th. A nice cream-coloured adult female Honey Buzzard. It’s difficult to say how common this plumage actually is in Batumi, but I guess I have seen around 5-10 similar birds this season. Besides the Crested-like coloration and the lack of carpal patches, these birds (probably mostly/all females) show a very typical structure and plumage for European Honey Buzzards.
August 18th. A more (= very) typical adult female Honey Buzzard.
August 18th. Another typical adult female Honey Buzzard.
August 18th. A typical adult male Honey Buzzard.
August 18th. A decent number of individuals is not so straight-forward to sex. I think this is an (older?) female with a more male-like plumage, but showing female proportions. All flight feathers look dusky and simultaneously dipped in ink, but comparing with the previous male (which also appears dusky) I think this may just be the light.
August 18th. Juvenile Marsh Harrier. I’m convinced many of these juveniles showing substantial yellow blotching go down as females in many birders’ notebooks, but this is perfectly within the normal variation. I guess birds showing yellow blotching also have a tendency to be paler brown than juveniles that lack extensive yellow blotching, making confusion even more likely to occur.
August 18th. Same bird as previous showing the best features to separate juveniles from non-juveniles: the lack of signs of moult and the light tips to the greater coverts on the upperwing.
August 22nd. The view to the east, towards ‘Big Momma’, over ‘the ridge’.
August 22nd. Crappy photo of an immature male Montagu’s Harrier showing a mixture of juvenile outer primaries and adult-type inner primaries, and retained juvenile secondaries.
August 22nd. Same bird as previous.
August 22nd. Juvenile Montagu’s Harrier. Notice how Montagu’s can show quite a collar and dark boa, but less distinct than in Pallid Harriers. The collar in Montagu’s, if present, tends to be the same colour tone as the body plumage, whereas it’s (always?) a lighter/more yellowish shade in Pallid Harriers.
August 22nd. Same bird as previous, when it suddenly realised it was too close for comfort.
August 22nd. Same bird as previous.
August 22nd. Juvenile male Pallid Harrier. Notice how the collar is a lighter shade than the body plumage here, whereas the previous Montagu’s shows it in the same shade.
August 22nd. Same bird as previous. Quite extensive damage to P7.
August 22nd. Same bird as previous.
August 22nd. The very first crappy record shots of a migrating Oriental Turtle Dove in a flock of Turtle Doves, roughly 2 kilometers away. The identification of the bird (the one leading the flock) was based on it being a darker Turtle Dove and much (at least 30%) bigger than the other Turtle Doves in the flock. In the field pure flocks of Turtle Doves do not show any appreciable difference in size between individuals, so any individual that is this much bigger has to be a different species. By the end of the season we have tallied a respectable 7 Oriental TDs of which 2 have been photo-documented.
August 24th. Adult female Marsh Harrier. Not a particularly good-looking bird, but the light also wasn’t very flattering, I guess. Quite a lot of pale feathering on the underwing in this bird.
August 25th. A non-juvenile (probably adult) female Marsh Harrier without a tail. Leaves you wondering what caused this… I’m convinced it’s not just birds that have their tails shot off by hunters.
August 25th. Some obliging Bee-eaters.
August 25th. In August, Bee-eaters are omni-present, but so are Levant Sparrowhawks, like this juvenile.
August 25th. A big flock of Bee-eaters temporarily soaring in moderate updrafts. This soaring behaviour happens quite often, but usually you’re too late to capture it in photographs. This time I was lucky to be able to fire off a few shots…
August 25th. Same flock as previous.
August 27th. Juvenile Montagu’s Harrier. Notice the pale spots on both side of the crown, which I think is quite a good pointer for Montagu’s vs. Pallid Harriers.
August 27th. Juvenile Montagu’s Harrier, same bird as previous. Not all Montagu’s have dark fingers, nor barring limited to the basal parts of the outer primaries.
August 27th. Same bird as previous.
August 27th. Same bird as previous.
August 27th. All lights out, except at Station 2. Notice the kettle of Honey Buzzards over ‘Little Ginger’ (in the photo above right of Station 2).
August 28th. Bee-eaters have a tendency to traverse the bottleneck in a very erratic fashion. We therefore do not count the species, as the counts would be incredibly inconsistent and unreliable.
August 29th. Juvenile Levant Sparrowhawk and Montagu’s Harrier, the latter with quite well marked underwing coverts.
August 29th. Another juvenile Montagu’s Harrier (probably a male).
August 29th. Quite a ‘derpy-looking’ Bee-eater.
August 29th. Possibly my sharpest-ever shot of a single Bee-eater. They are so incredibly difficult to photograph, I have really lowered my bar for what is acceptable to publish here for this species.
August 30th. Usually adult male Marsh Harriers show quite a variegated upperwing plumage, so this is about as uniform as they can get. This bird shows almost no signs of yellow mottling and a very uniform brown patch contrasting sharply with a very uniform grey and black outer wing.
August 30th. The underwing of the same bird is more typical, but the iris is surprisingly dark for a bird that appears to be >3cy…
August 30th. Typical underwing of an adult male Marsh Harrier.
August 30th. Another adult male dark morph Marsh Harrier. Appearing fine from one side…
August 30th. … but apparently it’s lost its right eye! It’s amazing how this bird seems to be doing fine despite it.
August 30th. … At least it doesn’t appear to be a fresh injury and the plumage of this bird is in perfect condition, suggesting it’s been doing fine with 1 eye for a while already.
August 30th. Straight-forward and typical juvenile Marsh Harrier.
August 30th. Adult male (left) and female (right) Honey Buzzard.
August 31st. A mixed flock of Turtle Doves… and 3 Ruff!
August 31st. Another flock of Turtle Doves.
August 31st. A juvenile Osprey in front of ‘Big Momma’.