The bee-eater has landed!!
This weekend sees the official launch of an updated Arabic version of the Birds of the Middle East. Richard Porter is currently in Dubai at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature where he will be giving a...
Category: OSME Blogs
Illegal killing of birds in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Iran: peer-review
As previously highlighted, BirdLife International and OSME are undertaking a Review of illegal killing and taking of birds in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Iran. This project extends the geographic scope of the previous BirdLife Initernational review of...
Draft Flyway Action Plan for the Conservation of the Balkan and Central Asian Populations of the Egyptian Vulture (EVFAP)
Public Consultation Exercise: Draft Flyway Action Plan for the Conservation of the Balkan and Central Asian Populations of the Egyptian Vulture (EVFAP) The Coordinating Unit of the Raptors MoU, in collaboration with the EU LIFE+ Project ‘The...
Happy New Year from OSME
It has certainly been a busy and productive past 12 months for OSME. Over the last year we have seen the amount of money we have been able to provide projects through our Conservation Fund increase again,...
OSME supporting membership scheme
The conservation work that OSME can support across the Middle East, The Caucasus and Central Asia is heavily reliant on the number of members that support us. The majority of funds raised from membership subscriptions is spent...
Batumi – “this one is very rare, it’s on the red-list”
I recently blogged about how amazing Batumi can be for migrating raptors – The Serengeti of the Skies. Unfortunately, there is a less amazing side to Batumi, and it involves the illegal killing of birds. In 2015, OSME...
Batumi – Serengeti of the skies
Batumi in Georgia is rapidly becoming one of the best known places in the world to watch one of nature’s most spectacular phenomenon – migration. Specifically, raptor migration. Every autumn for the last 9 years a group...
OSME Region List (ORL) version 3.3α
Striped Crake, Aenigmatolimnas marginalis. Photo: Ammar Al-Jeraiwi. The ORL version 3.3 was published in early July 2016 in a β-version to meet the planned schedule of two updates per year. Several important papers were at that time unobtainable, as...
Minutes of the 38th Annual General Meeting
Minutes of the 38th Annual General Meeting held on Saturday 2nd July at the premises of the British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk, UK Members Present, Nabegh Ghazal Asswad, Dawn Balmer, Mike Blair, Colin Butler, Chris Clarke, Elaine...
Can you help with surveys of the Indian Ocean coast?
According to the 6th edition of the AEWA Conservation Status Report, nearly 75% of the population size estimates of the waterbird populations in the West Asian/East African flyway are based on ‘best guess’, the highest of all flyways. This...
The OSME Summer Meeting and 38th AGM
The OSME Summer Meeting and 38th AGM will be held at BTO Headquarters, Thetford, Norfolk on Saturday 2nd July. Doors will open at 10.00am for members and non-members to meet old and new friends over coffee and...
World Migratory Bird Day
The 10th May is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) an annual initiative, co-ordinated by UNEP/CMS, to raise awareness about the issues around migratory birds and their habitats. In many ways it is also a global celebration about...
Saving Globally Threatened steppe birds in Turkey
Doğa, the BirdLife partner in Turkey, has recently launched a new conservation programme for Globally Threatened steppe birds in extensive steppes of Turkey. The initiative will target the Sociable Lapwing, Egyptian Vulture, Steppe and Imperial Eagles, Great...
Tracking loggerhead turtles to their death in the Eastern Mediterranean
Adult female loggerhead turtle caught in a trammel net, Iskele, North Cyprus. Photographer Olkan Ergüler The Marine Turtle Conservation Project in North Cyprus is a collaboration between the Society for Protection of Turtles, The North Cyprus Environmental Protection Department...