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 35 (1) Spring 2013 Cover photo: Osprey Pandion haliaetus , Beit Shean valley, north Israel, 24 October 2010. © Lior Kislev
1 Contents .2 Passerine migrants in Bahariya oasis, Western desert, Egypt: surveys and habitat associations. Matthew White, Krzysztof Stepniewski & Mary Megalli 14 Recent records and status of the Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius in Iran. Abbas Ashoori, Ali Khani, Meysam Ghasemi, Koros Rabiee, Mehrdad Mansoori, Seyed Babak Musavi, Alireza Hashemi & Farshad Eskandari 20 Documenting status of the European Roller Coracias garrulus in western Cyprus. Derek Pomeroy, Frank Walsh & Colin Richardson 25 Black-shouldered Kite Elanus caeruleus breeding in Israel. Yoav Perlman & Nadav Israeli 28 The soaring bird spring migration bottleneck at Ayn Sokhna, northern gulf of Suez, Egypt. Mary Megalli & Gudrun Hilgerloh 36 White-rumped Sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis in the United Arab Emirates: the first record for the Arabian peninsula. Oscar Campbell & Dermot O’Mahony 39 Spotted Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes : a new species for Azerbaijan. Michael Heiss 43 The populations and distribution of the breeding birds of the Socotra archipelago, Yemen: 1. Sandgrouse to Buntings. RF Porter & Ahmed Saeed Suleiman 82 From the Rarities Committees. Ian Harrison (compiler) 87 Letter to the Editor: Kazakhstan checklist. 89 Reviews. 90 OSME News. Geoff Welch 95 News & Information. Dawn Balmer (compiler) 99 Around the Region. Ian Harrison & Chris Lamsdell (compilers)
Editor: Dr Peter Cowan OSME Editor , Department of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, University of Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman Editorial Advisors Vasil Ananian, Paul Goriup, Mike Jennings, Dr Fares Khoury, Guy Kirwan, Dr Mike McGrady, Dr Stephen Newton, Arend Wassink Photographic Editor Paul Doherty Reviews Editor Guy Kirwan Identification Consultants Arnoud van den Berg, Chris Bradshaw, Andrew Lassey, Richard Porter
