If you walk along the banks of a body of water anywhere in Europe in mid-January, there is a good chance that you will encounter birdwatchers. Traditionally, waterfowl are counted across Europe at this coldest time of the year. EuroNatur employee Justine Vansynghel accompanied our Albanian partners during the 2025 midwinter count.
The early bird...The midwinter count begins at sunrise.
It’s Saturday morning, 5 a.m. in Tirana and it’s still pitch black, as EuroNatur’s project manager for migratory birds Dr Justine Vansynghel sets off from the Albanian capital of Tirana to go southwards towards the Narta Lagoon. After about two hours she reaches her destination. Some more vehicles are already standing at the eastern entrance to the lagoon. It has the feel of a meeting between conspirators; in the dawn twilight, one could imagine criminal intrigues were afoot at this remote spot at such an early hour. However, as the cars’ occupants get out – “armed” only with scopes, binoculars and cameras – it quickly becomes clear, who is meeting up here and why.
Justine is out with both paid and volunteer bird counters from our Albanian partner organisation PPNEA. It’s time for the annual mid-winter count. Over a weekend in mid-January, this records aquatic birds right across Albania. The numbers of resting geese, ducks and waders should be at their highest in mid-January, the coldest point of the year. The mid-winter count has a long tradition, so it is possible to draw conclusions from these reliable statistics about populations and development trends.
Long experience and youthful enthusiasm
On this Saturday morning, Dr Justine Vansynghel is out with three other ornithologists and bird experts. Mirjan Topi, a former colleague at PPNEA, now a tour guide with Birding Albania, has taken part in the bird count on Albania’s waters for more than ten years. “I haven’t missed a single count since 2014. It’s important to gather reliable data, but more than anything it’s great fun,” says Mirjan grinning.
Out in nature, I can switch off. And perhaps more importantly, we’re counting birds with other likeminded people. It’s rewarding and it brings people together.
Mirjan Topi
A good team: Mirjan Topi, Reinhard Haxhiraj, Tea Zeqai and EuroNatur project manager Dr Justine Vansynghel
Back in 2014, the youngest member of the team couldn’t even walk, let alone hold a pair of binoculars. For Reinhard Haxhiraj, the early start isn’t necessarily his favourite thing, but he is fizzing with excitement. Reinhard is 12 years old and he lives in nearby Vlora. He has been interested in the birdlife of the Narta Lagoon since he was six. “I’ve even managed to teach my mother to recognise some species,” he says proudly. Reinhard’s parents support their son in his hobby, often accompanying him on his birdwatching outings.
The fourth group member is Tea Zeqaj, one of the many volunteer bird counters in PPNEA. She studied economics and became a nature conservationist after going birdwatching with Mirjan. Asked why she is getting up so early on a Saturday morning to count birds, Tea says, “For me, birds are the most visible proof that we share our planet with other creatures. I would like to do my bit to protect them.”
Huge and threatened: a Dalmatian pelican flying over the counting people.
Albania’s birds are in dire need of protection. The dangers to these feathered globetrotters come in many forms, and Justine and the other team members witness that for themselves this morning. First there is the construction of the Vlora airport. To give a further boost to tourism in southern Albania, the government is allowing an airport to be built on the bird-rich Vjosa-Narta nature reserve. To enable this, a dubious change to the law was especially enacted drawing up new boundaries so that the construction site now lies outside the protected area. Furthermore, the Environmental Impact Assessment for this environmentally destructive project can only be described as a farce. The habitat for birds is being destroyed by the work continuing on construction and, should the airport become operational, things look very gloomy for the flamingos and other birds. At the moment, the salty, shallow pools of the lagoon and its ponds rich in food still provide a resting ground, which is much frequented by all sorts of birds.
For the third time running, Mirjan Topi and his team were denied access to the construction site, even though the area has traditionally been one of the places to carry out counts. “This action is disgraceful. It obstructs any attempt to investigate the scale of the risk that the airport presents to birdlife and use statistics to prove it,” says Mirjan Topi. The ornithologists and bird conservationists then find themselves a spot a little way from the fenced off construction site and carry out the count as best they can from there. Something impossible to miss is the flock of several hundred greater flamingos.
Two swarms of greater flamingos and behind them the tower under construction for the planned airport. The construction of an airport right next to the Narta Lagoon is not just a catastrophe for the area’s birdlife, but also questionable with regard to air safety.
“That sight provoked mixed feelings,” was how Justine described the situation. “On the one hand, we were so thrilled to see that large flock of elegant birds standing in the lagoon’s shallow waters. Yet the airport tower rising up behind it with a huge crane alongside, gave us a real picture of how it could soon look here. It made us all think,” says the EuroNatur project leader.
Working together, EuroNatur and PPNEA are challenging the construction of the Vlora airport, but work continues unabated despite the court judgements still pending. “Gaining a personal insight into the site has shown me once again how perverse this project is. Not just from an ecological standpoint, but also with regard to air safety. I would hate to think of the consequences if a flock of large birds were to collide with one of the aircraft,” says Dr Justine Vansynghel.
Boards, presumably put down by bird hunters, lead into the wetland. At its perimeter: illegally dumped building rubble.
However, the construction of the airport is not the only danger facing the birds of the Narta Lagoon. Illegal hunting also presents a threat to Albania’s birdlife. As the bird counters reconvene having finished their work, one of the teams reports that shots were being repeatedly fired while they were counting. So they called the police. In response to their enquiry, officers told them the shots were being fired at foxes and jackals, not birds. Hunting small predators is considered a mere trifle in Albania, but it is a criminal offence. Since 2014 a ban on hunting has actually been in force across the whole country, a ban which is breached time and time again.
On the day before the mid-winter count, Justine Vansynghel went out with our Albanian partners from AOS. Among the sites they visited were the Thana reservoir and the Terbufi plain, two of Albania’s poaching hotspots. Most of the shooting here is from unlawfully erected huts and directed at aquatic birds, but attraction call systems are also being used illegally to a lure passing quail. Justine accompanies Erald Xeka and Klajdi Duro from AOS on their regular routine inspection of both areas.
The three of them have some great bird sightings – including a large flock of rare little bustard – but they also find a number of cartridge cases, many of them fresh. This shows that the hunting was not long ago. A little later, the bird conservationists and ornithologists hear shots themselves. Justine jumps, Erald and Klajdi react almost stoically to the sound – both of them are unfortunately used to such events. Shortly afterwards, looking through their scopes they spot poachers with their quarry in their hands. Erald informs the responsible authorities, there’s nothing more the conservationists can do for the moment.
Albania’s birds face numerous challenges and sometimes I find it hard to be optimistic about the future. What does give me hope though is the growing number of volunteers who support our efforts. This shows that the protection of birds is gaining significance in Albanian society, and this could soon produce tangible benefits for birds.
Erald Xeka, AOS
Scarves and hoods have long since been removed on this unusually mild January day.
Back to the mid-winter count: the temperatures on this Saturday morning have risen to a summery 19 degrees, which is unusually warm for the Albanian winter. Mirjan Topi’s team of counters throw their winter coats into the car and start noting down the number of bird species and individual birds. The ornithologists’ sightings include black-winged stilt, dunlin, kentish plover, golden plover, grey plover, snipe and a variety of duck species. A supposed cormorant sitting on the water’s edge is confidently identified by the youngest member of the group, Reinhard Haxhiraj, as a pygmy cormorant.
The sighting of a northern pintail gives Mirjan Topi great pleasure, not just because of the attractive appearance of this elegant duck with its eponymous long “pintail.” Mirjan can remember how, just a few years ago, northern pintails were still a regular sight in Albania, but now a sighting like this is quite an event. Why is a subject of speculation. Does illegal hunting play a role in it? Is the deterioration in water quality, also caused by the poor management of these areas, having a negative effect on populations? Or are the consequences of the climate crisis being felt? As a result of climate change, many northern birds set off late towards the distant Adriatic – and some not at all.
One clear indication of manmade climate change are the sightings of crane, black stork and osprey; species which normally spend the winter in Africa, not Albania. “The constant mild winters of the past few years are very probably having an effect on bird migration patterns,” says Erald Xeka. As long as our waters do not freeze up, there is enough food available for the birds so they would rather stay in the north than migrate south. This gives short- and mid-distance migrating birds a clear advantage with regard to fitness over birds that continue to migrate to Africa. On their return to the breeding grounds these birds can secure the best territory for themselves.”
At the end of the mid-winter count, one last shimmering jewel shows itself: a kingfisher perched on a reed looking for small fish that entrances the whole team. They all direct their scopes and binoculars towards this tiny bird, revelling in the moment, absolutely delighted, whether they have six years birdwatching behind them or thirty.
Water fowl count in Albania
One, two, 27, 185... counting flocks of birds isn’t always easy, but with a system it can be done -- and it’s fun!
The IWC (International Waterbird Census) organises bird counts across most of the world, enabling them to track global bird populations. Since 1994, paid and volunteer ornithologists and bird conservationists in Albania have been recording the country’s waders and aquatic birds every year in mid-January as part of the IWC. Our partner organisation AOS (Albanian Ornithology Society) coordinates the countrywide midwinter count and is supported in this by agencies and other nature conservation organisations such as PPNEA.
In January of this year, more than 60 birdwatchers recorded 112,516 birds, comprising 61 different species. Unfortunately, despite our partners‘ work to protect birds, there is a downward trend. The reasons for this are many and they vary from species to species: deterioration of habitats, pressure from hunting, changing migration patterns. There are many questions to answer about the causes of this downward trend, and this is another reason why reliable data over a long period is so important.
The author of this article also took part in the midwinter count, but 1,700 kilometres further northwest. Together with several colleagues from EuroNatur and volunteers from NABU, Christian Stielow counted a stretch of Lake Constance. The temperatures there were actually wintry on this day...
