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 32 (1) Spring 2010 Cover photo: Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola near Istanbul, Turkey, April. © Haldun Savas.
01 Contents 02 Lanner Falcon Falco biarmicus preying on White-eyed Gull Larus leucophthalmus in Egypt. Attila D Sándor & István Moldován 04 Migration of harriers and other raptors at Ashura Deh, Iran, April 2008. Magnus Ullman & Mattias Ullman 13 Notes on nest and breeding of Afghan Snowfinch Pyrgilauda theresae , Bamiyan province, Afghanistan. Simon Busuttil, Raffael Ayé & Chris Shank 15 Rare birds (Streptopelia roseogrisea, Caprimulgus europaeus unwini, Iduna rama, Acrocephalus agricola ) at Eilat’s ringing station, Israel, autumn 2008. Noam Weiss & Reuven Yosef 20 Spring migration of soaring birds over the Bosphorus, Turkey, in 2006. Özkan Üner, Kerem Ali Boyla, Ergün Bacak, Ertugrul Birel, Ilhan Çelikoba , Cem Dalyan, Evrim Tabur & Ümit Yardim 34 Probable breeding of the Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca on Cyprus. Christoph Randler & Alan Crabtree 37 First record of Ultramarine Flycatcher Ficedula superciliaris in Iran and the Middle East. Saeed Cheraghi & Mohammad Tohidifar 39 Status of East Siberian Wagtail Motacilla (alba ) ocularis in Kazakhstan. Arend Wassink 41 Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel new to Yemen. Simon Aspinall & David Stanton 43 Studies of Socotran birds V. On the validity of Anthus similis sokotrae and a few remarks on Arabian and northeast African populations of Long-billed Pipit A. similis . Guy M Kirwan & Andrew Grieve 50 Observations on the Gambaga Flycatcher Muscicapa gambagae in Yemen, May 2009. Werner Müller 55 First record of White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus in Saudi Arabia. Graham R Lobley & Philip Roberts 57 Observation of apparent tool use by an Abyssinian White-eye Zosterops abyssinicus on Socotra, Yemen. RF Porter 59 Observation of a large flock of Sociable Lapwings Vanellus gregarius in southeast Egypt. Attila D Sándor, Cristian Domsa & István Moldován 61 Bird Sites of the OSME Region 6—Birding the Palmyra area, Syria. DA Murdoch 80 Reviews. 84 OSME News. Geoff Welch 86 News & Information Dawn Balmer (compiler) 90 Erratum & Corrigendum. 91 Around the Region. Dawn Balmer & David Murdoch (compilers)
Editor: Dr Peter Cowan OSME Editor , Department of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, University of Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman Editorial Advisors Vasil Ananian, Simon Aspinall, Paul Goriup, Mike Jennings, Dr Fares Khoury, Guy Kirwan, Dr Stephen Newton, Arend Wassink Photographic Editor Paul Doherty Reviews Editor Guy Kirwan Identification Consultants Arnoud van den Berg, Chris Bradshaw, Steve Madge, Richard Porter
