Is the Slender-billed Curlew extinct?

In the latest (November) issue of British Birds, Guy Kirwan, Richard Porter & Derek Scott examine all the historical claims and records of Slender-billed Curlew in the Middle East. It is suggested that many of the published records, especially...

The latest (October 2015) issue of Wings & Waves, the newsletter of SPNL

The latest (October 2015) issue of Wings & Waves, the newsletter of SPNL

The latest (October 2015) issue of Wings & Waves, the newsletter of SPNL/Birdlife Lebanon, is available at the following link: http://www.spnl.org/wings-waves-newsletter-october-2015/ Articles include: 1. SPNL participates in MAVA’s Strategic Planning Workshop for the Mediterranean Basin Programme From 17...

Sociable Lapwing Migration Update

OSME has received exciting news from Birdlife International on the monitoring and tagging of Sociable Lapwing – which has been financially supported by OSME’s Conservation and Research Fund for a number of years. On 28 September, a...

The 2015 OSME Region List and its underpinning taxonomy

The taxonomy in del Hoyo, J and NJ Collar. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World Volume 1: Non-passerines. (Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. 903 pages, hundreds of colour plates) employs the Tobias et al 2010 system...

Joint winter meeting 21st November 2015

This November we are teaming up with the British Ornithologists’ Club and the Natural History Museum for a joint winter meeting focussing on “Bird monitoring within the OSME region”. It will be held at the Flett Theatre,...

Kuwait becomes 169th signatory the Ramsar Convention

OSME has received news regarding the State of Kuwait becoming the 169th Contracting Party of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (on 5 September, 2015).  On the occasion of accession to the Ramsar Convention, and in fulfilment of a...

Basra Reed Warbler update

As readers of this blog will know there has been much concern over the scientific claims made in a paper published in the journal Zoology in the Middle East. The manuscript and follow up publications can be...

OSME 37th AGM, 4th July 2015

On the 4th July, as part of the OSME Summer Meeting, we also held our Annual General Meeting. OSME is a UK registered charity governed by a constitution (see here) that stipulates we hold an AGM every...