IT ALL STARTED IN 1966 FOR RICHARD PORTER - UK EXPERT ON BIRDS OF ARABIA

                                                   

IT was in 1966 - the year that England won the World Cup - that Richard Porter made his first visit to the Turkish capital, Istanbul, to carry out research on the migratory flight of raptors over the Bosphorus.

"I was captivated by the muezzins' call to prayer and the spectacle of white storks circling overhead, "he told an audience at Global Birdfair.

Since then, Richard has spent a large chunk of his career in various countries of the Middle East - some of them ravaged by war.

The title of his presentation was "Birding in A War Zone".

He has been an ornithological researcher for various conservation organisations, such as the RSPB, and has trained numerous Arab biodiversity students.

In his talk, he flashed distressing images of precious archaeological sites destroyed by Isis and the environmental devastation wreaked in deserts and the Arabia Sea inm the aftermath of Sadaam Hussein's Iraqi troops being driven out of Kuwait.

                                        

Richard Porter - magic of the Middle East 

Thousands of birds and other creatures perished when they landed in oil mistaken for water on their ancestral migration routes.

Other succumbed as they sought to fly through dense, billowing  smoke from blazing oilfields. 

Although he has never come to personal harm, Richard conceded that he has worked in places where the atmosphere was decidedly sinister.

It was too unsafe for him to train Iraqi students in their own country so the coursework was carried out in neighbouring Syria.

Richard was particularly fscinating on his review of the buzzards, petrels and ibises, terns ands plovers  to be found in unique habitats such as island of Socotra in The Yemen.

Sadly, since their dramatic population decline over the past 50 years, he has few hopes of the slender-billed curlew ever being seen again in any of the countries of Arabia.