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The beautiful Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana is a fairly scarce summer visitor to southern Europe (parts of the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, and the Balkans), north into Scandinavia and Germany, and east as far as Mongolia. As much as 50% of the global population is found in Europe, and the entire population apparently winters south [...]

Anyone attempting some sort of Big Year Bird List who works for an airline and wants to see as many birds as possible (eg me, myself, I) needs to make at least one trip out to the Middle East, and preferably either in April or September/October, and even more preferably be able to hook up [...]

 
Organisation: The Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME) http://www.osme.org
 
Who are we? The Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME) grew out of the Ornithological Society of Turkey, a UK-based organisation which expanded its boundaries to include the other countries in the Middle East and Arabia, and from 2001 again expanded to include the [...]

I once mused in a blog about how remarkably generous birders can be with their time, and (yet again) I was fortunate enough to begin my day’s birding in the company of a top birder - Dave Sargeant, one of Oman’s most respected resident birders, site-guide author (”Birdwatching Guide to Oman”), and one of the [...]

A great journal does not necessarily make a great book. This simple truth, one that countless bloggers will inevitably, obstinately transgress, has already been proven time and time again in literary history. The reason publishers keep trying to transition personal records to paperbacks, besides the fact that the content is already written, is probably that [...]

Crag Martins and Rock Martins Ptyonoprogne rupestris and P. fuligula
21 April 2006, Doha, Qatar
 
After a morning’s birding in Doha, Qatar I found a small flock of Martins flying around the outside of the hotel I was staying at.

At first glance - while I raced to get the camera settings set for photographing rapidly flying birds [...]

Pivot Fields and Wimpey Pits, Dubai, UAE, and Al Jazera Hotel, Jebel Ali
01 March 2005
 
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a constitutional federation of seven emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The federation was formally established on 2 December 1971.

The UAE occupies an area of 83,000 sq km [...]

Kuwait is a relatively small State (17,818 square kilometers (6,880 square miles), including the Kuwaiti share of the Neutral Zone (2,590 sq km)) at the top of the Arabian Gulf, and is almost entirely flat desert.

Kuwait was attacked and overrun by Iraq on 2 August 1990. Following several weeks of aerial bombardment, a UN coalition [...]

 
Kuwait is a relatively small State (17,818 square kilometers (6,880 square miles), including the Kuwaiti share of the Neutral Zone (2,590 sq km)) at the top of the Arabian Gulf, and is almost entirely flat desert.

Kuwait was attacked and overrun by Iraq on 2 August 1990. Following several weeks of aerial bombardment, a UN coalition [...]

 
‘Wimpey Pits’, Dubai, UAE16 January 2005.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a constitutional federation of seven emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The federation was formally established on 2 December 1971.

The UAE occupies an area of 83,000 sq km along the south-eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar [...]

Pallid Swifts Apus pallidus pallidus
Dubai, Wimpey Gravel Pits, 16 January 2005
 

 
All photographs © Charlie Moores.