Sandgrouse 27 1

Sandgrouse is published by OSME and contains papers and short notes on the ornithology of the OSME region, provides bird and conservation news from the region and a comprehensive round up of bird sightings in the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Sandgrouse Volume 27 (1) Spring 2005

Sandgrouse Cover 27 (1)

Black Bush-Robin Cercotrichas podobe taken by Hadoram Shirihai at Eilat, March 2002.

3OSME NEWS
  
5REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION
  
8NEWS AND INFORMATION
 compiled by DAWN BALMER & GUY M. KIRWAN
9A long-term bird survey in the central Syrian desert (2000-2004): Part 1-
 G. SERRA, M.S. ABDALLAH, A.K. ASSAED, G. AL QAIM, , A.K. ABDALLAH
24Distribution and habitat associations of selected breeding birds in Wadi Araba, Jordan
 M. AL-SHAMLIH, K. NASSAR & F. KHOURY
30Will the real Sykes’s Warbler please stand up? Breeding data support specific status for Hippolais rama and H. caligata, with comments on the Arabian population of ‘booted warbler’
 P. CASTELL & G. M. KIRWAN
37Observations from Syria with notes on 11 new breeding species
 D. MURDOCH
46Azerbaijan: a miscellany of recent bird observations (Status and occurrence of selected visiting species and amending known breeding ranges)
 S. ASPINALL
53The breeding avifauna of the Umm Al-Qamari Islands protected area, Saudi Arabia
 S. OSTROWSKI, M. SHOBRAK, A. AL-BOUG, A. KHOJA & E. BEDIN
63Bird observations from Iran in February–March 2001, including a new species for the Middle East
 T. ROTH, R. AYE, R. BURRI & M. SCHWEIZER
69Ornithological observations from Lebanon during 2003–4
 G. RAMADAN-JARADI, S. P. WATERBURY & M. RAMADAN-JARADI
74First records of Yellow-throated Sparrow Petronia (Gymnoris) xanthocollis from Syria
 D. MURDOCH
75The first American Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica in Oman and Arabia
 A. GRIEVE, B. J. N. HILL, P. A. LASSEY & D. I. M. WALLACE
77Dunn’s Lark Eremalauda dunni – a first record for Syria
 G. SERRA
79Phenology of Common Swift Apus apus in the Middle East – Tehran, Iran
 A. KHALEGHIZADEH
82Phenology and Behaviour of the Common Swift Apus apus in Israel (Holy Birds, or the Common Swifts Apus apus of Jerusalem’s Western Wall)
 U. TIGGES & H. MENDELSSOHN
88REVIEWS & RECENT LITERATURE
  
90AROUND THE REGION
 Compiled by DAWN BALMER AND KEITH BETTON
Editor:Michael Blair OSME Editor
Features EditorSituation Vacant
Assistant EditorDawn Balmer
Editorial CommitteePaul Goriup, Mike Jennings, Rodney Martins, Peter L. Meininger & Dr Stephen Newton
Photographic EditorPaul Doherty
Design & ProductionHarry I. Scott
Identification ConsultantsC. G. Bradshaw,Arnoud B. den Berg & Steve Madge