more commonduring migrationperiods than in winter Curry,A.C. 1978. Report of the RAFOS Expeditionto Masirah (Gallagher & 1980; Uttley et aL 1988). Island, 6-26 October 1976. Cyclostyled. Furthermore,population turnover can be significantas Etheridge,B. 1980. Studies. In: Pomeroy,C.A, (Ed). Report migrationis not synchronouswithin a species. It is likely of the RAFOS Masirah Island Expedition, 22 October-26 that the number of using Barr al Hikman as a November 1979 migratorystop-over is at least as great as the numbers Gallagher,M. & Woodcock,M.W. 1980. The Birdsof Oman. wintering. Quartet, London.

The largenumber of birdspresent in this region,and their Green M., McGrady M, Newton S. & Uttley J. 1992. The shorebirds of Bart al Hikrnan and Ghubbat al Hashish, Ornan. roostinghabits, coupled with its great extentand difficulty UnpublishedReport. of access make accurate counts extremelydifficult. Sample counts of areas such as Barr al Hikman cannot be Perennou, C., Rose, P. & Poole, C. 1990. Asian Waterfowl 1990. assumedto providean indicationof the speciesand IWRB, Slimbridge,UK. numberspresent, especially when we have very little Rogers,T.D. 1988. A new listof the birdsof MasirahIsland, knowledge of how sites and habitats are used by different Sultanate of Oman. The Oman Record Committee, PO species. If shorebirdpopulations in the middle-eastare to Box 246, Suitante of Oman. be assessed and monitored,extensive counts by relatively Smart, I., Miles, G.A. & West, M. 1983. Waders and Waterbirds on largeteams of experiencedobservers are essential. DubaiCreek. Wader StudyGroup Buff. 37: 29-30.

In summary,we found the shoresof Barr al Hikmanto Summers, R.W., Underhill,L.G., Pearson, D.J. & Scott, D.A. 1987. Wadermigration systems in southernand easternAfrica and hold internationallyimportant numbers of shorebirds- westernAsia. In: Davidson,N.C. & Pienkowski,M.W. (eds). notablyCrab Plovers,sandplovers, Bar-tailed , The conservationof internationalfiyw•y populationsof Dunlin and Redshank. In addition it is the westernmost waders. Wader Study Group Bull.49 suppL/IWRBspecial significantwintering site yet discoveredfor Great Knot and publ. 7:105-113. may hold significantnumbers of Slender-billedCurlew. Tucker,G. 1985. Autumnwader migrationin Bahrain. Wader Study Group Bull.44: 30-32.

REFERENCES Uttley, J.D., Thomas, C.J., Green, M., Suddaby, D. & Platt, J.B. 1988. The autumn migrationof waders and other waterbirds throughthe northernUnited Arab Emirates Sandgrouse10: Behrouz•-Rad, B. 1991. Waders •n Iran. Wader Study Group Bull. 58-70. 63: 33-36. Zwarts, L., Felemban, H. & Price, A.R.G. 1991. Wader counts Chernichko, A.B., Grinchenko, A.B. & Siokhin, V.D. 1991. Waders alongthe Saudi Arabiancoast suggests Gulf harbours of the Sivash Gulf, Azov - Black Sea, USSR. Wader Study millionsof waders. Wader Study Group Bull. 63: 25-32. Group Bull 63:37-38

A wintering or passage population of Great Knot tenuirostris in the Arabian Gulf ?

SimonAspinafi

Aspinall,S.J. 1993. A winteringor passagepopulation of Great Knot Calidristenuirostris in the ArabianGulf ? Wader Study GroupBull. 72: 43-47. Recent surveysof shorebirdsin the Arabian Gulf have located Great Knot in a number of sites. A summaryof these observationsis providedtogether with a discussionon the statusof this speciesin the MiddleEast and on possiblemigration routes of thiswesternmost wintering population. Aspinall,S.J., NationalAvian ResearchCenter, P.O. Box 45553, Abu Dhabi, UnitedArab Emirates.

INTRODUCTION 1986), where recent surveyshave found over 250,000 (Lane 1988). Their migrationappears to take them very Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris breed in eastern Siberia largelythrough the Philippinesand New Guinea(Hayman and•inter principally innorthern Australia (Hayman et al. eta/. 1986). Considerablysmaller numbers are regularly

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