OSME Raffle

The winners of the 2011 raffle to raise funds for the Conservation and Research Fund were:

1st Opticron Imagic BGA SE 8x42 binoculars (value £419) H Brown.
2nd Naturetrek voucher for £250 D Marshall.
3rd Country Innovations New Venture Waistcoat (value £65) John Warr.
4th Birdguides - Breeding Birds of the Western Palearctic (value £75) Andy Musgrove.
5th Birdguides - BBi: British Birds interactive (value £75) G Ridley.
6th Helm – Reed and Bush Warblers (value £65) A Cotton.

Congratulations to all of the winners, thanks to the sponsors for generously donating the prizes and thanks to everyone who purchased tickets.

Information about OSME is available in Russian

Information about OSME is available in Russian. Please click here.

Hima Fund now available for Middle East IBAs

Funds are available for a traditional approach to conserving biodiversity and managing natural resources, the Hima system.
An Arabic version of this news is available from Julien Jreissati ( julien.jreissati(AT)birdlife.org)

OSME Summer Meeting 2011, Saturday 16 July 2011

Speakers at the 2011 Summer Meeting, left to right: Geoff Welch, Phil Cannings, Guy Kirwan, Sal Cooke, Jeff Gordon and Andrew Lassey (Ian Harrison/OSME)

After last year’s Middle Eastern weather, things were ‘back to normal’ for this year’s Summer Meeting and AGM with overcast skies and torrential downpours! However the programme of talks took the audience of 44 members and guests to the four corners of the OSME region. The first speaker was Phil Cannings who gave an overview of his work advising on the development of a protected areas network in northern Cyprus. This has involved everything from identifying sites and developing the relevant legislation to preparing management plans and increasing local capacity through training staff and providing facilities and equipment. Seven priority sites have been identified and six are now officially protected. All bar one are coastal areas, the exception being the Kyrenia Mountains site which is important for breeding raptors and is the only site in the EU where Egyptian Fruit Bat Rousettus aegyptiacus is found. Compared with most other coastal areas in the Mediterranean, the beaches of northern Cyprus are still little developed and so most are very rich botanically and three of the selected sites are important turtle nesting areas. Because of its location, northern Cyprus is very important for migrating birds, especially in autumn, and the island has two endemic species Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Wheatear, both of which are relatively common and widespread. Phil’s work is ongoing with the next stages being the recruitment and training of additional staff, implementation of management plans and legislation and the integration of the plans into the wider planning process to ensure that Cyprus’s important species and habitats are protected for future generations to enjoy...... continued

Minutes of the 33rd Annual General Meeting held on Saturday 16th July 2011 at the premises of the British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk, UK

Members Present –. Dawn Balmer, John Bartley, Pat Bartley, Colin Bates, Christine Booth, Phil Cannings, Mick Carroll, Sal Cooke, Elaine Cowan, Peter Cowan, Helen Demopoulos, Jeff Gordon, Andrew Grieve, Ian Harrison, Phil Heath, Mike Jennings, Guy Kirwan, Chris Lamsdell, Andrew Lassey, David Marshall, Rod Martins, Brian Meadows, Nick Moran, Frank O’Connell, Richard Pavy, Doug Radford, Geoff Randall, Mike Reed, Colin Richardson, Andrew Schofield, Joyce Snoxell, Maldwyn Snoxell, Effie Warr, John Warr, Geoff Welch.

1. Apologies for absence were received from: AbdulRahman Al Sirhan, Simon Aspinall, Keith Betton, Mike Blair, Melis Charalambides, David Fisher, Mick Green, Peter Hellyer, Brendan Kavanagh, Denise Lamsdell, David Murdoch, Richard Porter, Richard Prior, Rob Sheldon, Hilary Welch.
2. Minutes of the 32nd Annual General Meeting held on 10th July 2010.

   Individual copies of these had been made available to those members attending. Acceptance was proposed by Jeff Gordon, seconded by Sal Cooke and accepted unanimously. Geoff Welch, Chairman, signed them as a true record of the Meeting.

3. Matters arising .

   In response to a query about the possible merger of Sandgrouse and Phoenix, the Chairman advised the Meeting that although discussions had taken place, the two publications will remain separate for the time being. He added that while there was some overlap in the geographical areas covered, the area covered by Sandgrouse was in fact much larger and that there should therefore be little competition between the two.

4. Presentation and adoption of the Accounts for 2010.

   A leaflet with the summarised accounts for 2010 was distributed at the meeting and the contents, with additional detail, were described in a graphical presentation. The Treasurer summarised by stating that activities during the year had resulted in a healthy financial position and in fund balances well above the Reserve Fund target of £12,000.
   In response to a question from the floor, the Treasurer explained that there was no problem with having high fund balances provided they were satisfactorily explained in the balance sheet and as long as the OSME Trustees can demonstrate that funds are not being accumulated.
   Acceptance of the accounts was proposed by Mick Carroll, seconded by David Marshall and carried unanimously.

5. Appointment of Accounts Examiner for 2011.

   The Treasurer explained that Mike Jennings had expressed his willingness to act as Accounts Examiner for 2011. His appointment was proposed by Pat Bartley, seconded by Rod Martins and carried unanimously.

6. Election of officers:

   Vice-Presidents: Geoff Welch advised the Meeting that the current Vice-Presidents were continuing in office.

   Council Members: As noted in the Agenda, two Members retire this year: Chris Lamsdell and Richard Prior. The Chairman further noted that one Member, Richard Bonser, had had to resign because of pressure of work. The Chairman thanked these Council Members for their helpful contributions during their term of office. He noted that Helen Demopoulos had been co-opted at the 120th Council Meeting held on 5 February, 2011.

   Council Members remaining (Trustees elected for a 5 year term): Geoff Welch (Chairman, 2012); Ian Harrison (Secretary, 2013); Mike Blair (2013); Guy Kirwan (2012); Robert Sheldon (2014); Nick Moran (2015).
   There was one nomination for Council Membership – Helen Demopoulos.
   This nomination was proposed by Mick Carroll, seconded by Mike Jennings and carried unanimously.
7. Any other business.
   In response to a suggestion that rather than having to buy raffle tickets, some members might prefer the option of making a donation, gift-aided where possible, the Chairman stated that the Council would discuss this at a Council Meeting when the issue of a raffle in 2012 is on the Agenda.
   There being no other business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 14.09.

NOTE – these Minutes will be presented for approval at the 2012 AGM.

Wanted - new Council members!

Like all charities, OSME relies on the time freely given by its Council members in order to operate efficiently and we are currently seeking new members to join Council, either as full members or in a co-opted role. Council members serve for 5 years and Council meets formally three times a year plus informally at the Summer Meeting and the British Birdwatching Fair. The majority of OSME business, though, is carried out via email. Whilst a knowledge of the birds of the region is desirable, the most important attributes of Council members are having the time and enthusiasm to actively help maintain and promote the Society and good communication skills.

We are currently seeking to fill the following positions:

Membership Secretary: responsible for servicing the membership, primarily through maintaining the membership database and coordinating the twice yearly mailing of Sandgrouse.

Sales Officer: responsible for running the small-scale sales operation, both by mail order and at events.

Advertising and Publicity Officer: responsible for liaising with, and attracting new, advertisers and Corporate Members and identifying opportunities for promoting OSME to new audiences and potential members. Together, these generate a significant proportion of OSME’s income.

If you are interested in any of the above positions or feel that you have particular skills that would help maintain OSME as one of the premier regional bird clubs, please contact me.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Geoff Welch
Chairman of Council – chairman@osme.org

OSME and the AEWA Sociable Lapwing International Working Group

Workshop participants outside the headquarters of the General Commission for Al Badia Development and Management, Palmyra, Syria, March 2011. Photo: Geoff & Hilary Welch

The first meeting of the International Working Group was held in Palmyra, Syria between 18 and 20 March, hosted jointly by the Syrian Society for the Conservation of Wildlife (SSCW – BirdLife Affiliate in Syria) and the General Commission for Al Badia Development and Management. The meeting brought together government and NGO representatives from eight of the key range states for the species, covering the principle breeding, stopover and wintering sites. In addition to agreeing the functioning of the Working Group, the main output of the meeting was identifying the priority actions each country will endeavour to undertake in the next 3 years. Although there were variations between countries, the key actions for the group as a whole were: identifying additional stopover sites on the western flyway; protecting and managing key stopover sites; and encouraging all range countries to accede to AEWA if they are not already signatories.

Searching for Sociable Lapwings near Palmyra, Syria, March 2011. Photo: Geoff & Hilary Welch

As well as confirming the country membership of the Working Group, three permanent observer organisations were appointed – BirdLife International, RSPB and OSME. OSME’s inclusion highlights the importance of the OSME region for the species as it covers the main breeding grounds in Kazakhstan and important stopover sites in Turkey and Syria and, more recently discovered, Oman and Uzbekistan. The meeting also marked the end of the Darwin Initiative-funded project on Sociable Lapwing which has contributed so much to our understanding of the ecology, threats and conservation of the species. The final day of the workshop was a field trip to the steppe around Palmyra in search of Sociable Lapwings but unfortunately none were located. Numbers passing through Syria this year appear to have been very low, possibly because of the very dry conditions. The meeting was supported by the RSPB, BirdLife International’s Preventing Extinctions campaign and Swarovski Optic and Jim Lawrence from BirdLife presented several of the participants with Swarovski binoculars and telescopes to assist future fieldwork on the species. OSME was represented by Chairman, Geoff Welch, and (unofficially) Council member, Rob Sheldon.

Conservation and Research Fund

The guidelines for the submission of applications has been revised, click here for more details.

Little Owl in the OSME Region – request for pictures

Many Little Owl Athene noctua taxa occur in the OSME Region. However, breeding distributions are poorly known, as are plumage descriptions geographically. The taxonomy of some taxa is uncertain, clouded both by speculation and by the uncertain status (resident, migrant, winter visitor, vagrant of many specimens, some of which have been used as DNA samples for research papers).

It is unclear if some or all geographical populations exhibit plumage variation, either related to habitat/geography (a phenomenon observed, for example, in some lark taxa in deserts), or as individual variation.

Most of the recent DNA work on Little Owl from which taxonomic suggestions have arisen comes from analyses carried out by Prof Dr Michael Wink of Heidelberg University, or by his co-authors of papers.

Professor Wink has been very helpful in advising the limits of prudent caution that the OSME Region List (ORL) might best observe. The ORL team have tapped their own experience and that of others in addressing the question of Little Owl taxa identity in the OSME Region, and have concluded that a resource of images of Little Owl taxa would help clarify some of the questions above, even in the negative sense that individual variation may invalidate the assessment of the identity of a taxon in a particular geographical area.

We therefore are issuing this OSME Council-approved request for digital pictures of any Little Owl taxon. We also require the date (in consideration of plumage growth and moult; even an approximate date would help), local time of day, weather and light conditions, geographical location (as accurately as possible; some cameras now have GPS data for each image), habitat (of the general area and of the image site) and any opinion of the photographer as to which taxon it might be.

Professor Wink has also requested that if it is possible to obtain by ethical and legal means, feather, blood or tissue samples from Little Owl taxa (he would advise on request how these should be packed and sent), he would be happy to analyse them, the address being:

Prof. Dr. Michael Wink,
Institute of Pharmacy & Molecular Biotechnology
Director, Division: Biology
Heidelberg University;
Im Neuenheimer Feld 364; D-69120 Heidelberg;Germany
Email wink@uni-hd.de

OSME will be putting these images in an archive on the website. We would require only low-to-medium resolution images for public view. The images will be available to view, and so for those who do not wish their donated images to be downloaded, please imprint them in a manner that would spoil any download but not obscure plumage information. Should Professor Wink or any other bona fide researcher wish to obtain the raw images, we would ask the copyright holder to deal directly with the researcher, if only to obtain agreement re acknowledgement details should these images appear in any kind of publication. All such requests should go to secretary@osme.org, copy to orl@osme.org.

Mike Blair, Richard Porter, Simon Aspinall, Steve Preddy March 2011

WorldBirds now available in Arabic

Arabic is now available as a language option on the following WorldBirds family systems:
Middle East Birds
North Africa Birds
East Africa Birds
West Africa Birds
By having Arabic available, BirdLife International and RSPB hope that the system will be more accessible to local bird watchers in the countries where the language is used.
There are a few caveats, though:
- the system cannot at this stage cope with the right-to-left orientation of the whole system - so the text will read correctly, but the menus etc are still on the left - this is not ideal, but is a minor problem;
- as with any translation, there are going to be areas where expert users may think that different phrases or words would fit better - please feed back suggestions to Ian Fisher (ian.fisher@rspb.org.uk) or Loriaza Davies (loriaza.davies@rspb.org.uk) or let them know if you find any problems.