Our small group began the first leg of the now traditional two-day Negev trip starting at the vast, desolate plains of Hameishar. A Bar-tailed Desert Lark in full song broke the early morning air, and the distant calls of Spotted Sandgrouse could clearly be heard but the birds failed to come into view. A Desert Wheatear gave us good views close to the road.

Moving on, we visited a small sewage pool and adjacent tamarisk grove north of Mizpe Ramon. The still air was penetrated by the calls of several 'northern' finches including Chaffinch, Siskin, a couple of Brambling and even a Hawfinch!

By mid-morning we were at Yerukham Reservoir following up a slightly dated report of Purple Swamp-hen. It wasn't too long before we located one bird in some tall phragmites reeds followed by sightings of another and then a third! Pleased with our success we enjoyed good views of the numerous waterbirds here including 6 Pochard before moving onto Kibbutz Gevulot .

We actually reached Gevulot with enough time to have excellent views of a roosting Long-eared Owl before lunch and then headed out to the fields of Urim for the afternoon.