The Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia is a registered charity (no 282938) and exists to collect, collate and publish data on all aspects of the Ornithology of the Middle East region.
OSME members receive
Our journal Sandgrouse
which....
- publishes short notes on identification and first records for the region.
- publishes papers on bird distribution, behaviour, ecology and conservation issues.
- provides bird and conservation news from the region.
- lets you know about the best birding sites in the region.
- provides a comprehensive round up of bird sightings in the OSME region.
Sandgrouse is published twice a year in spring and autumn.
Join today
British Birdwatching Fair boosts OSME Conservation and Research Fund
One of the popular events at the annual British Birdwatching Fair is the Bird Brain of Britain Quiz that taxes the specialist and general ornithological knowledge of a representative of each of the four regional bird clubs. This year, OSME was represented by new Council member, Nick Moran, whose specialist subject was Rare birds in the United Arab Emirates. After each contestant had faced two Mastermind-style interrogations by quizmaster, Chris Packham, Nick was the victor winning £1,000 towards conservation or research of a globally threatened species in the OSME region. Well-earned congratulations to Nick – all of your revision paid off!
Photograph of Nick (right) receiving the Bird Brain of Britain award from Chris Packham, British Birdwatching Fair, 21 August 2010 (photographer: John Warr – OSME).
The Birds of the Middle East
The second edition of Birds of the Middle East has just been published. Written by Richard Porter and Simon Aspinall, it will be reviewed more fully in OSME’s journal, Sandgrouse but is obviously absolutely essential for any visitor to the Middle East or for anybody interested in the region.
The book can be obtained through one of OSME’s corporate sponsors NHBS - use the link on this website or go directly to www.nhbs.com. It can also be obtained from the publisher A & C Black (www.acblack.com) who very generously gave two copies of the book to OSME for use as raffle prizes. One of these was won at the OSME Summer Meeting but the second one is one of the six prizes in the annual OSME raffle – to be drawn on 30 September. If you are interested in purchasing tickets at £1.00 please contact Ian Harrison (secretary@osme.org). Monies earned will go into the Conservation and Research Fund.
National Geographic to go Arabic from October
An Arabic-language edition of The National Geographic magazine, which dates back to 1888, is to be published from October and distributed across the GCC as well as in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.
See the following link:
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100802/BUSINESS/708029953/1005
Ibis on the move
Following the successful, and ground-breaking, transfer of a small number of Northern Bald Ibis from the semi-wild population at Birecik, Turkey to the only known wild breeding colony in Syria, the birds are now on their way to wintering grounds in southern Arabia and Ethiopia. Currently, the wintering area of juvenile ibis is unknown so discovering this will make a major contribution to developing strategies for long term conservation of the ibis, the rarest bird in the Middle East. Follow the story at www.rspb.org.uk/ibistracking
Fall 2010 Volunteer Positions at Aras & Kuyucuk Bird Ringing (Banding) Stations in northeastern Turkey
The environmental organization KuzeyDoga Society (www.kuzeydoga.org) has been monitoring and ringing birds at Aras and Kuyucuk Bird Ringing (Banding) stations in northeastern Turkey's Kars and Igdir provinces. We have so far recorded 322 bird species in the Kars region, over two-thirds of the country’s species, including most of eastern Turkey specialties. Click here for more information.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
As indicated in last year’s Chairman’s Report, OSME started 2009 facing a year of financial restraint but thanks to concerted efforts by all of Council and excellent financial planning and management by the Treasurer, John Warr, we ended the year with a budget surplus of almost £4,000. Given the turmoils of the global economy this is no mean feat. The 2009 raffle generated much needed funds to support the day to day management of OSME and the Conservation and Research Fund and we will be running another raffle in 2010 which I hope will be even more successful. However, with rising costs in areas such as printing and postage and increasing difficulties in raising income from advertising and sales, 2010 will be another year where OSME needs to manage its finances very carefully.
Two issues of Sandgrouse were published during the year and mailing of the journal was taken over by the RSPB. After some ‘hiccups’ with the spring mailing, the new arrangements appear to be working well and has resulted in savings in both money and, importantly, time spent by the Membership Secretary and Treasurer. Good progress was also made with researching the cost of digitising back copies of Sandgrouse and the OSME Bulletin both of which we hope to soon have available on the OSME website.
In contrast to recent years, the number of applications to the Conservation and Research Fund (CRF) fell dramatically in 2009 – the reasons for this decline are unclear. Hopefully this is a temporary situation, especially as OSME has now established a partnership with the Emirates Natural History Group (Abu Dhabi) which means that more funding is available for projects in the Emirates. Only two grants were awarded in 2009 - £500 for a survey of Sooty Falcons on the Egyptian Red Sea coast and £600 towards the publication of an Arabic text guide to the wildlife of Deir ez-Zor on the Syrian Euphrates. Both of these grants were generously supported by Avifauna, the latter also included the £250 won by David Murdoch in the Bird Brain quiz at the 2008 British Birdwatching Fair. Given David’s very close association with Syria, Council feels that this was a very appropriate use of the prize money. This year Richard Prior represented OSME in the quiz and won £375 for work on endangered species in the region. In addition to the grants above, OSME also added its support to concerns voiced by national and international conservation organisations over proposed developments at the Jahra East outfall in Kuwait which threaten to destroy this important wetland. At the time of writing, the results of these interventions is unknown.
Dominic Mitchell resigned from Council early in the year due to pressure of work, we thank him for his valuable contributions to the running of the Society in recent years. At the AGM Rob Sheldon was elected onto Council and Azzam Alwash, the Director of Nature Iraq, was elected as a new Vice-President. In the autumn, AbdulRahman Al Sirhan was appointed as Website Manager and has taken on the task of redesigning and keeping the website up to date, a job that has been long overdue. There are still several key roles on Council where we are seeking new members so if you feel you can help, please do contact us.
As always, we are most grateful for the continued financial support of our Corporate Members – Avifauna, Greentours, Natural History Book Service, Rockjumper Birding Tours, Sarus Bird Tours and Sunbird.
As always, I would like to end by thanking you, the membership, for your continued support which enables OSME to continue to play an active role supporting birdwatching and conservation throughout the OSME region.
Geoff Welch
OSME Region List of birds
A new consultation document, containing a definitive list of the species recorded within the OSME region, has been prepared. We invite any comments, corrections and suggestions for improvements. See OSME Region List here.
OSME News – from the Chairman of Council, Geoff Welch
Like any organisation, OSME needs to constantly evolve and adapt to changes, especially in relation
to its membership, conservation and research activities in the region and the wider global situation.
One of the privileges of being Chairman of Council is that it gives an opportunity to indulge in a little
‘crystal ball gazing’ regarding how OSME could and should develop in the coming years and I would like
to take this opportunity to share some of my, and Council’s, thoughts with you.
Despite the many social, political, economic and environmental difficulties currently facing many
of the countries in the OSME region, there is a steadily growing number of active and extremely
dedicated birdwatchers and conservationists and OSME is committed to supporting their efforts
in whatever way the Society is able. The most practical means of doing this are through providing
financial support via the Conservation and Research Fund and facilitating access to information
and contacts locally, regionally and internationally via the Supported Membership scheme, journal
exchanges and the OSME website. Inevitably all of these require money to a greater or lesser
extent and therefore OSME is reliant on the support of its individual and corporate members
to make this possible. Therefore in addition to continuing your membership of OSME, Council
would like to encourage as many members as possible to upgrade to Supporting Members which would
enable us to provide subscriptions to nationals throughout the region who are otherwise unable
to pay the annual subscription fee. I know firsthand that in many countries there is a new
and developing generation of birdwatchers often based around university bird groups
and whilst these students have almost boundless enthusiasm they have very limited
resources for optical equipment, field guides, reference material or transport.
A year’s subscription to Sandgrouse is a very effective means of encouraging a
continued interest in birds and conservation and as skills and knowledge increase
this is already leading to an increasing number of papers being submitted for publication.
Continuing the Sandgrouse theme, Council is researching the practicality of digitising back
copies of Sandgrouse and the OSME Bulletin for eventual posting on the OSME web site to make
this valuable archive available to all, especially as many of the earlier issues of Sandgrouse
are no longer available in print. The challenge is to find a means of doing this cost-effectively
but we hope to be able to make a start on this project within the coming year. Sandgrouse itself
has undergone a redesign recently and now has much more colour throughout and is continuing
to be at the forefront of bird club publications providing an excellent mix of scientific
and popular articles presented in a modern, attractive format. Following the very popular
Syrian Checklist (Sandgrouse Supplement 2), there is an increasing interest from organisations
in the region for more of this type of publication and preliminary planning is underway for
checklists for the United Arab Emirates and Central Asia.
