It is not often you hear buntings compared to pigeons, but last week an excellent, yet worrying, scientific paper was published that shows massive declines in the once common and relatively widespread Yellow-breasted Bunting. The scale and...
OSME and OBC are delighted to announce we are joining forces to provide £2000 of funding for the further monitoring of White-headed Duck in Kazakhstan. ACBK, the BirdLife International partner in Kazakhstan is also collaborating with the Universities of Munster and Bielefeld,...
The OSME Summer Meeting and 37th AGM will be held at BTO Headquarters, Thetford, Norfolk on Saturday 4 July. Doors open 10.00 and talks start at 11.00. Come for coffee and meet old and new friends! Non-members...
The Basra Reed Warbler Acrocephalus griseldis is listed as Endangered by the IUCN, and its breeding range is largely restricted to the Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq. In many ways it is a typical Acrocephalus warbler inhabiting reedbeds and marshy habitats,...
Dear Birders, have ever wondered how 10.000 raptors would look in the sky? Visit Eurasia’s largest bottleneck for autumn raptor migration with up to 1.000.000 raptors in a single season. The Batumi Raptor Count survey the tremendous migration each...
Observers in the Arabian Peninsula are asked to send in their personal observations of breeding species for 2015 when it is convenient, e.g. after a visit or at the end of the local breeding season. It is...
(Note – Although this request covers an area outside the OSME region, the opportunity may be of interest to a number of our readers). Populations of Yellow-breasted Bunting, Emberiza aureola, are rapidly declining across their range and have...
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS JOIN RAPTOR MIGRATION CENSUS IN TURKEY THIS SUMMER Location: Adana Province, Turkey Duration: 15 August – 15 October 2015 Job Type: Volunteer Application Deadline: Open until filled Background: Doğa Derneği is a leading nature...
Sergey Dereliev the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is planning to produce a coffee table book featuring some of the waterbird species for which the Agreement has undertaken initiatives. OSME is helping publicise his request for the images. The African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) is celebrating its 20th anniversary...
For a long time, the OSME library has been something of a mobile affair, housed by willing volunteers from OSME Council. In recent years, former Council member Guy Kirwan had the rather thankless task of looking after...
Alexandre Roulin of Lausanne University is preparing a book about barn owls worldwide. OSME is helping publicise his request for images from the extensive distribution of the genus Tyto. My name is Alexandre Roulin, a professor in Biology...
Richard Porter, a founder member of OSME, has been associated with conservation work in Iraq for more than a decade, especially with Nature Iraq. He was part of the BirdLife International team that worked with a wide-range of...
OSME has received a request to publicise the following project concerning Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio. This is an interesting project which we feel deserves support. If you have any photographs, feathers or tissue samples the team would...
In 2012, OSME’s Conservation and Research Fund provided The Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) funding to initiate a study of the endangered White–headed Duck in central Kazakhstan. As well as receiving funding from...