Rob Sheldon

Rob started birding at the age of seven on Sunday afternoons around a local patch in Wombourne, South Staffordshire. Whilst at the University of Hertfordshire he undertook a one year placement at the National Avian Research Center in the United Arab Emirates to study wintering Houbara Bustards. This began a lifelong interest in the birds of the Middle East. After completing a PhD on the breeding ecology of the Northern Lapwing, Rob joined the RSPB as an agricultural adviser before spending many years in the Reserves Ecology department that took him to many of the RSPB’s famous nature reserves. During this time Rob was seconded part-time to the Conservation Science department to study Sociable Lapwings in Kazakhstan. His final job at the RSPB was as the Head of International Species Recovery which involved projects on globally threatened species such as Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Vultures and Eurasian Curlew. After two years based in Saudi Arabia, Rob now works as a freelance conservation consultant. Rob has been a Council member of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME) since 2011 and the Chairman since 2013. Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, UAE and Scotland are Rob’s favorite birding destinations.