Dear all,

Firstly my deepest apologies for being silent and absent for some time
- I've been back at my old job (as a lawyer) in Darwin - 1,800
kilometres north from my home base here at Yuendumu in the south-west
of the Northern Territory. The last six months has been a rewarding,
but exhausting, blur!

There are a number of very interesting conferences on this year,
including:

1 - Society of Ethnobiology conference - this year will be held at the
University of Fayetteville, Arkansas in the USA from April 16 to 19.
For more information go to: http://www.ethnobiology.org/. The usual
varied set of presentations, including, next Friday April 18th, a
session entitled "Advancements and Prospects in Ethno-ornithology",
chaired by Eugene Hunn of the University of Washington. I'll be off on
a plane across the Pacific and western USA later this week to attend
and present at this conference. I'll post some abstracts from that
session later.

2 - The International Society of Ethnobiology (the other one!) will
hold the 11th International Congress at Cusco, Peru from June 25 to
30. See more at: http://ise.arts.ubc.ca/congresses/future.php.
Registration is now open and I know of at least a few people who will
be attending and presenting, including one of our recent members,
Fleur Ng'Weno from Kenya as well as a lot of other workers from KENRIK
and the National Museums and other organisations in that wonderful
country. Sadly, time and shortage of funds (and there are only so many
conferences you can get to in a year!) means that I won't make it -
maybe 2010 in Toronto, Canada.

3 - In September this year (indeed a busy month!)I'll be travelling to
South Africa where I've been invited to Chair a session on African
ethnoornithology during the 12th Pan African Ornithology Conference.
We have five speakers to date and I'll send out a last-minute Call For
Papers for this session. For more information on the PAOC go to:
http://paoc12.adu.org.za/index.htm. I'm really looking forward to
finally making it onto one of the famed Cape Town pelagic tours while
I'm there.

4 - After the PAOC I'm hoping to get back to Kenya for a few days
en-route to the BirdLife International's 2008 World Conservation
Conference and Global Partnership Meeting in Buenos Aires which will
be held between 22 to 27 September. There I've been asked to speak at
one of a number of workshops that will consider the role of birds and
other wildlife in our culture and their value to the quality of life.

Then home again to work on my book on Australian ethnoornithology and
finish my Masters thesis!

More news soon.

Bob Gosford
ERSG Moderator