Events

AGM 2012

The next ABC Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 28th April 2012 at the BTO in Thetford. The agenda is as follows.

10:30 Doors open

11:00 Chairman's introduction - Keith Betton

11:05 Challenges for Palearctic birds in Africa - Phil Atkinson

11:45 Saving the Seychelles Warbler: conservation and science hand-in-hand - David Richardson

12:20 The Red-billed Quelea - small bird, big problem! - Sir Clive Elliott

13:00 Lunch break - Drinks and sandwiches available, and books, DVDs, CDs and ABC goods on sale

14:00 Annual General Meeting

14:30 Why does the Ethiopian Bush-crow have such a restriced distribution? - Nigel Collar

15:05 Preventing extinction in Africa - conservation of globally threatened species - Rob Sheldon

15:45 Tea / Coffee

16:15 Birding anbd bird conservation in Eritrea - Jason Anderson

17:00 Raffle Draw / Closing Remarks - Keith Betton

Download the meeting programme for additional details including directions to the BTO.

ABC at Birdfair 2012

ABC will again have a stand at Birdfair from 17th - 19th August 2012. Furhter details to follow.

ABC at Birdfair 2011

The African Bird Club had its usual stand 65/66 in Marquee 4 at Birdfair 2011 on the 19th - 21st August. We were delighted to see numerous visitors on our stand and talk about their past and future journeys to Africa. Existing members collected the latest Bulletin 18.2.

Stephen and Ann Cameron preparing to set up the 'Find the Plover' board which is always popular with visiting children.	The sales stall with ABC branded goods including the new African Blue Flycatcher mugs and T-shirts.
This year's Bird ID Quiz attracted less entries than last year. Are ABC members concerned that they will get too many right or wrong?	The map of Africa - a very popular item which allowed visitors to mark the countries in Africa which they had visited. The dots show the distribution of visits.

ABC at Birdfair 2010

Claire Spottiswoode signs copies of her new book, Where to watch birds in Ethiopia.	A job each morning for Keith Betton, ABC Chairman.

PAOC 2012 Update

Over the past twenty years, on three occasions conditions beyond the control of ornithologists have led to a change in venue for the PAOC. The Congress Committee had already planned a move within Nigeria from the Jos region to Ibadan, where the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture provides excellent and secure facilities. While there have been no incidents in Lagos or Ibadan, the local organising committee in Nigeria have agreed that this is not an appropriate time to host the PAOC in their country. We hope that PAOC14 will return to West Africa. 

Meanwhile plans are well underway for Tanzania to host PAOC13 from 14-21 October 2012 at Arusha. There is a wide range of accommodation including camping available, and of course several of the iconic East African national parks are within easy reach of the town, which is serviced by an international airport. The theme of the congress is “Birds in a changing environment”, but papers on all aspects of African ornithology will be included in the programme.  The scientific programme already has an impressive array of plenary speakers, and a call for abstracts can be found on the PAOC website along with information on registration, accommodation and excursions linked to the congress.

The Pan-African Ornithological Congress Committee looks forward to welcoming many delegates to Arusha next year, to share in the new information which will be presented, and to debate what we need to do most urgently at this critical time for both the birds and the environment which we share with them in Africa. And always keep your binoculars close at hand – according to the latest Tanzanian Bird Atlas data, more than 640 species have been recorded for the Arusha map square.

Adrian Craig, Chair, PAOCC

Last page update 26th January 2012