Negev Desert

March / April 2015

Since sharing a wealth of spectacular and dramatic experiences together on a longline tuna fishing vessel off the coast of South Africa five years ago, Meidad Goren and I have stayed in touch.  Then he was a BirdLife observer and part of the Albatross Task Force and I was pursuing an art and conservation project that culminated in the publication in 2012 of the Troubled Waters book and exhibition in support of BirdLife and the Global Seabird Programme.

Since then I've been continuing with the seabird work and pursuing other art projects.  Meanwhile, Meidad returned to Israel to work for SPNI (Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel) as manager of the Ramat HaNegev Birding Centre at Sde Boker in the centre of the Negev desert.  It wasn't long before Meidad was insisting that I visited Israel and stay at the centre so that he could show me some of the most fabulous birds and special landscapes of the Negev.  The best time, he said, was late March and early April.

Back home I was in touch with Dominic Mitchell editor of Birdwatch magazine who kindly commissioned an article and published it in the November 2015 edition (see below)

Hoopoe lark (Alaemon alaudipes)

McQueen's bustard (Chlamydotis macqueenii)

Temminck's horned lark (Eremophila bilopha)

Thick-billed lark (Ramphocoris clotbey)