As usual, short- and long-term volunteers are needed for the counts. Over the last decade, migration monitoring has steadily gained momentum along the East Afro-Eurasian Flyway, with projects being launched or revived across the OSME region—from the Caucasus through the Middle East to Central Asia. At the same time, these initiatives increasingly attract motivated individuals from across the flyway who are eager to learn and apply migration monitoring skills in their own countries.

OSME has recognised that investing in people and building local capacity is just as important as monitoring the birds themselves. Since its launch in 2019, the Youth Development Fund has supported numerous such efforts. The Batumi Raptor Count (BRC) has proven to be an ideal platform for this purpose. Over the years, it has welcomed aspiring migration count leaders from around the world, many of whom have gone on to establish or strengthen successful monitoring programmes back home.

Building on this long-standing and productive collaboration, OSME and BRC are pleased to introduce a new traineeship programme, further reinforcing capacity development along the flyway.

Launching in autumn 2026, this initiative will offer traineeship opportunities to promising candidates from the OSME region who are committed to applying the monitoring and conservation skills they gain in their home countries. Supported by OSME, the Batumi Raptor Count will host up to two trainees this autumn, with each placement lasting a minimum of one month.

Trainees will join the Batumi Raptor Count for at least a full month, and their accommodation and travel costs will be fully reimbursed by OSME’s Youth Development Fund, up to €1300 combined. Given the highly standardised nature of the counts, trainees should primarily expect to be long-term counters as this will naturally expose them to many of the aspects involved in standardised monitoring: the count protocol, identification training and becoming a part of a team of international volunteers.

However, on top of that, trainees will be involved in organisational aspects as well, which concerns using the Trektellen platform, data checking and cleaning, off- and online public outreach, organising evening activities and other social events, communicating with the host families, and interacting with tourists present. As a trainee, you’ll have the option of participating in education activities (e.g. school visits) and other research and conservation activities if these are taking place during your stay. However, in the end the Batumi Raptor Count first and foremost organises raptor counts, so all activities are influenced to a degree by the raptor migration dynamics in the period of participation.

The learn more about the expectations on the trainees, how to apply for autumn 2026 and onwards, see the BRC web at www.batumiraptorcount.org