Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclns 
One Dumistan lake 24 November 1989 (Erik Hirschfeld). Fourth record. Very rare 
in Arabia, not being recorded in Oman and with only one record from UAE 
(November) and four from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (one December, 
three March). 
References 
Brown, GK and Palfeiy J 1986. The Small Skylark, a new sf)ecies for Saudi 
Arabia. Sandgrouse 7:55-59. 
Bundy, G, O'Coiinor RJ and Harrison CJO 1989. Birds of the Eastern Province of 
Saudi Arabia. London and Dahran. 
Cramp, S and Simmons KEL 1983, 1985 and 1988. The Birds of the Western Palearctic 
Vols III, IV and V. Oxford University Press. 
Gallagher, MD and Woodcock, M 1980. The Birds of Oman. London, Melbourne 
and New York. 
Hirschfeld, E 1990a Common Gull (Lams canus) - a first for Bahrain. BNHS 
Newsletter 1990, 6:5. 
Hirschfeld, E 1990b The first Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris) for Bahrain. 
BNHS Newsletter 1990, 6:6-7. 
Hollom, PAD, Porter, RF, Christensen, S and Willis 1 1988. Birds of the Middle 
East and North Africa. T & A D Poyser, Calton. 
Nightingale, T 1990. Dotterels in Bahrain winter 1988/89. OSME Bull 24:11-15. 
Perennou, C, Rose, P and Poole, C 1990. Asian Waterfowl Census 1990. IWRB. 
Richardson, C 1990. The Birds of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai and Warrington. 
Shirihai, H. 1986. The Small Skylark, a species new to Israel and the Middle East. 
Sandgrouse 7:47-54. 
Erik Hirschfeld, c/o I Ah, P O Box 144, Manama, State of Bahrain 
Spring raptor observations from 
Djibouti 
Geoff and Hilary Welch 
We spent four weeks (15 February to 15 March) in Djibouti in spring 1 990. 
The first and last weeks were taken up with nneetings in Djibouti city, and 
the middle fortnight was spent especially in the north and west working 
on a sites inventory. Thanks to a grant for £300 from OSME' s Conser va tion 
Research Fund towards vehicle hire, it also proved possible to spend 
three days on the northeast coast looking for evidence of a return spring 
migration of raptors across the Bab-el-Mandeb straits. 
25 
