Requests 
Oiled birds 
The massive oil slicks released in the Gulf in January and February 
caused large-scale mortality of wintering seabirds, waders and other 
waterfowl. The oil lakes and rivers in Kuwait are also taking a considerable 
toll. Considerable numbers of conspicuously oiled birds did not, however, 
die immediately and will have dispersed and migrated away from the 
war zone this spring. Huge numbers of spring migrants have also been 
covered in oily soot while flying through the immense smoke clouds in 
the northern Gulf. The same is now happ>ening this autumn. 
The International Council for Bird Preservation is urgently seeking 
information on the impact of the Gulf War on bird populations in the 
region, and should like to hear of any observations of oiled or 'sooted' 
birds away from the immediate impact zone of Kuwait and the Saudi 
Arabian Gulf coast: ie central Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, the 
USSR, eastern Africa and other parts of the Middle East. Such information 
will be immensely valuable in assessing the true effects of this war on 
bird populations. Please send information to: Mike Evans, ICBP, 32 
Cambridge Road, Girton, Cambridge CB3 OPJ, UK. Telephone 0223 
277318. Fax 0223 277200. 
Photographs for Sandgrouse 
If you can lend good photographs of any of the following for possible 
publication in forthcoming Sandgrouse papers, please send details, or the 
pictures themselves, as soon as possible, to the SandgrouseEdiior, Duncan 
J Brooks, c/o British Museum (Natural History), Akeman Street, Tring, 
Hertfordshire HP23 6 AP, UK. (Telephone 081 5203943 home; 0442 890125 
office) Photographs will be welcomed in any form, though good quality 
black-and-white prints or colour slides are best; all will be returned. 
Unfortunately, responsibility for loss or damage cannot be accepted, 
though all material will be carefully looked after. 
Crane Crus grus showing birds and dark morph from basalt of Jordan/ 
wintering habitats in Israel Syria 
Radde's Dunnock Prunella ocularis Kriiper's Nuthatch Sitta krueperi 
Yemen Dunnock P fagani House Crow Corvus splendens 
Black-throated Dunnock P atrogularis RiippcU's Weaver Ploceus galbula 
Mourning VVheatear Oenanthe lugens Desert Finch Rhodospiza. obsoleia 
Volunteers wanted in Turkey 
Volunteers are wanted for two surveys of birds in Turkey. The first, the 
WIWO survey of breeding birds and migration at the Kizilirmak Delta, 
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