Newsletter of The RSPB Medway Local Group Winter 2013

BirdsEye
Newsletter of The RSPB Medway Local Group
Events for Next Four Months
Winter 2013
Sunday 16 March - Seaton Pits - 9 am
See Programme for More Information
Indoor Presentations
****
17 December - Flights of Fancy - Brian Nobbs
Public Events
21 January - Easy Way to Identify Gulls David Darrell-Lambert
Saturday 15 to Sunday 23 February - NKMR
Event - Riverside Country Park
18 February - Medway YOC 41 years on - North
Kent birds, RSPB and Saving Nature Mike Clarke
GROUP LEADER’S NOTES
I hope you have all had a good summer. There
was certainly plenty of warm weather to go
round, although the lack of rain was an issue for
the gardeners. We have always been a nation
of weather watchers and this year has certainly
given us cause for debate!
“What a cold
spring”, “Whew it’s too hot today”, “Is it ever
going to stop raining!!!?” I guess that our
unpredictable weather is set to get even more
unpredictable due to global warming. Having
said that, the wonderful warm weather this
summer was a salvation to my garden wildlife
and I had an excellent time observing the nature
in it.
18 March - Hope for Malta’s Birds - Robin Potts
****
Outdoor Visits (Walks)
Saturday 23 November - Seaton Gravel Pits 9.30 am
Wednesday 27 November - Loose Valley &
Robin’s Nest - 9.30 am
Sunday 1 December - Conyer Creek - 8.30 am
Clouded yellow
Thursday 12 December - Riverside Country Park
- 10 am
Sunday 5 January - Dungeness RSPB Reserve 10 am
Sunday 19 January - New Hythe Lakes - 9 am
Wednesday 22 January - Riverside Country
Park - 10 am
Sunday 2 February - Elmley Reserve - 9 am
Sunday 16 February - Conyer Creek - 9 am
Wednesday 19 February - Bedgebury Pinetum 12 Noon
Sunday 9 March - Rye Meads/Lee Valley - CT
1
Along with the birds that regularly visit the free
Tilley al fresco dining establishment (‘eat in or
takeaway’), I had lots of the hovering, buzzing,
darting kinds of visitors. I had 11 species of
butterflies including my first recorded clouded
yellow.
A buddleia is worth planting in a sunny position
in any garden to attract all manner of insects and
butterflies.
There is good news on the horizon though as
Alan is in contact with another company that
may be taking up the dredging rights, so fingers
crossed that this is successful. Due to the
recession there has been less money available.
The thing that gave me most pleasure though
was a buff-tailed bumble bees nest that was
established at the edge of our pond. To witness
the creation and development of this colony of
bees was fascinating and I spent many an
afternoon watching them go about their
industrious lives.
Other developments are in the management of
Higham Marshes, almost a continuation of Cliffe!
Alan is also in discussions with the neighbouring
farmers and it is hoped in future that a wildlife
corridor will be developed extending along to
Northwood Hill.
As winter approaches it will be nice to read
about all the great walks we have had this spring
and summer and relive warmer, lighter days.
At Northwood Hill ‘Gordon’s Hide’ has been
erected at the bottom of the hill at the view point.
At the moment it is quite a few metres away from
the pool but the intention is to extend the pool so
that it will reach the edge of the hide. The hide
has been constructed by a local carpenter and I
must say he has done a really good job. The
view point now looks fantastic with the new
benches and the hide (See photo).
Marie Tilley
RESERVES BRIEFING
I recently attended a briefing at Northwood Hill,
given by Alan Johnson, Reserves Manager for
Rainham Marshes, North Kent Marshes
Reserves and Dungeness. The purpose of
these briefings, which are held about three times
a year, is to give the ‘heads up’ to group leaders
about what is going on at the reserves.
Alan highlighted the plight of the lapwing
population having fallen to an unsustainable
level. If measures were not taken then the
population would be in dire straits. It was thought
the failure in the successful raising of chicks was
due to the predation of the eggs and chicks by
mammals, foxes etc, so it was decided to erect
predatory fencing to see if this would halt the
decline. The good news is that it is working; the
numbers of chicks now being raised successfully
has increased to a sustainable level. Although
the fencing is not aesthetically appealing it none
the less had a significant effect.
From left: Alan Johnson, Michael Walters, Marie Tilley,
Jean Howland, Peter Curd.
I’m pleased to say that I think our reserves are
being well looked after so thanks to Alan and all
the reserve staff.
Rainham Marshes
This reserve continues to improve and is
developing nicely with accessibility for families.
They have a good team there and the reserve is
maturing into a very good site for wildlife.
North Kent Marshes Reserves
There has been criticism made about the lack of
development at Cliffe. Unfortunately this has
been due mainly to the lack of funding brought
about by the cessation of the dredging that was
occurring in the estuary. The company was to
pay to have the spoil disposed of and the
reserve was going to use the material to build up
the scrapes etc so it would have been a win win
situation for the RSPB, but this did not happen.
Marie Tilley
NEWS FROM NORTH KENT MARSHES
RESERVES - East (Seasalter Levels, Great
Bells Farm, Elmley, The River Medway), and
West (Cliffe Pools, Northward Hill and Shorne
Marshes).
2
It has been a big year for the RSPB, starting with
the publication of the ‘State of Nature’ Report in
May. Initiated by the RSPB, 25 partner
organisations produced a sobering report on UK
biodiversity declines.
The RSPB took this opportunity to roll out its
new brand. For those members who were
unable to attend the regional ‘Aren’t Volunteers
Brilliant’ event at RSPB Dungeness (July 20 th),
Paul Outhwaite - regional Public Affairs
Manager, led a workshop that embraced why the
RSPB is growing in the direction that it is. The
following day Paul was knocked off his bicycle,
but I am pleased to report that he is continuing
to recover well from serious injuries. The RSPB
TV advert will return to your screens this autumn
and initial indications show that the promotional
campaign is having the desired effect, including
an increase in membership support.
Cliffe Pools was positively heaving with nesting
sea birds this year, but they didn’t prove good
neighbours! 540 black-headed gulls did well but
may have been responsible for the majority of 83
nesting common terns moving on, resulting in
just two fledged terns. Both species are Amber
listed (BTO), so what do you do? A good
example of the need for landscape scale
conservation.
Other Amber listed species
included 57 pairs of avocets, 63 singing
whitethroats and 16 singing nightingales.
25 singing nightingales at Northward Hill was a
little down on the previous year (although 2012
was the best on record), but this was a trend
across the country due to the late spring. Only
one pair of breeding turtle doves was alarming,
but we are continuing efforts to establish a
‘cover crop’ of plant species specifically for them.
84 herons and 64 egrets bred at Northward Hill.
In parallel with the new brand, RSPB staff are
focused on delivering the new strategy as
championed by Mike Clarke - ‘Saving Nature’.
This follows a full review of our priorities and
means of delivery and introduces a new
business culture. Between the new brand and
‘Saving Nature’ the RSPB is best placed to
tackle the challenges so starkly presented in
May’s report.
The family of our late friend, Gordon Allison,
visited the reserve at the end of September to
see the new bird hide that they provided in his
memory. Earthworks and planting is ongoing to
screen the hide and more new scrapes have
been created between the reservoirs. As part of
the ongoing building refurbishment at Bromhey
Farm it was assessed that the old barns had to
be removed
Barn owl
for
safety.
This
was
completed in
October and
the
owls
have already
moved into a
new owl box
in the walnut
tree.
Two
further owl
boxes have
b e e n
installed at
each end of
the
cattle
John Markham (rspb-images.com)
shed.
Stepping down a rung from the big picture, the
team on the North Kent Marshes, wardens,
residential volunteers and volunteer work parties
have accomplished a huge amount this summer.
One reward has been the best year on record for
lapwing chick survival. 88 pairs of lapwings
attempted to breed, and the highest number of
chicks ever, fledged. This was thanks to a
combination of site management and favourable
weather.
Black-headed gull
On
Shorne
Marshes a new
electric
predator
fence has been
installed that will
g i ve
b re edi ng
waders a further
line of defence
ag a inst
la rge
ground predators.
Emma Sheard, our
Farm Conservation
Advisor, has been
out and about
forging new links
with
landowners
Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
that could result in
the sort of management agreement now in effect
on the Higham Marshes that will see improved
conditions for breeding waders; our
congratulations to Emma, who will be moving to
Scotland to start a PhD in farming practices that
enhance wader productivity.
Everywhere has enjoyed an excellent year for
invertebrates. The Maid of Kent beetle was
discovered at Cliffe Pools for the first time, a
shrill carder bee was found at Northward Hill and
butterflies were everywhere late into the autumn.
Roger Kiddie, our long-standing volunteer with
all things invertebrate, has also run, this year, a
monthly public bird ringing event with his
colleagues. This is proving popular and we will
post the dates for 2014 as soon as we have
them.
3
We currently have two residential volunteers,
Ben Coogan and Dr Ruth Brown who are with us
until the New Year. We said goodbye and hello
again to Amy Winchester, who, after a year on
the marshes was successful at interview and is
now the warden at Blean Woods - Canterbury.
Next year we will transition to a new internship
scheme partnered with RSPB Dungeness.
Finally, Sir Howard Davies and members of the
government’s Aviation Committee visited RSPB
Northward Hill during a fact-finding visit to
Medway; this went very well and Sir Howard
expressed his surprise at the diversity of land
use on the Peninsula. A select team of RSPB
staff, local, regional and national, continues to
work very hard against the Thames Estuary
airport proposals, a third Thames crossing, and
Medway Council’s plans to develop Lodge Hill in
Chattenden. We expect an announcement from
Natural England in November as to whether
Lodge Hill will be designated a Site of Special
Scientific Interest for the greater than 1% of UK
nightingales that nest there each year.
The RSPB took the novel step of opening up
some of its reserves to a summer camping
extravaganza and Northward Hill could not resist
hosting a ‘Big Wild Sleepout’. This was a
fantastic event, with a delightful mix of people
pitching up, toasting marshmallows around the
camp fire, walking through the woods in the pitch
black and stargazing with Mid Kent Astronomical
Society.
Be sure to book early for next
summer’s Sleepout, pitches are limited.
Thank you, from all of us, for your continued
support.
Rolf Williams
Communications NKMRs
We are again indebted to Medway Local Group
for providing the bulk of the volunteers that
delivered the Wildlife and Countryside Fair. The
weather was a little tricky, but 1,300 attended,
enjoyed the music, good food and nature trails
and for the first time in its history, we turned a
profit and welcomed nine new family members to
the RSPB! It is always a team effort, but I have
to pick out our new Administrator, Marie Calvert,
who led from the front.
NEWS FROM DUNGENESS
Unfortunately due to staff shortages there will be
no news from Dungeness this time. We are
assured that this will all be sorted out ready for
our spring newsletter. Chris Hawkins who has
written our reports from Dungeness over many
years has now left the reserve. We would like to
express our thanks for her input over this time.
David James has been very busy recruiting
around North Kent, often accompanied by the
Greater Thames Futurescapes Officer –
Stephanie Lawrence, and your good selves.
Editors
NEWS FROM BLEAN WOODS
We said goodbye to Elmley Marshes in the
spring, although we continue to liaise closely
with the Elmley Conservation Trust on a number
of projects.
Check out their new website:
www.elmleynaturereserve.co.uk.
A few outstanding earthworks have now been
completed at Great Bells Farm next door and
over on the Seasalter Levels (near Whitstable),
the project partnership is moving into the final
stage of compulsory purchase of the Plotlands in
advance of this SSSI being returned to
favourable condition under RSPB management.
We left the last news letter with our dedicated
volunteers clearing the paths and keeping all the
vegetation cut back. They also completed odd
jobs including erecting a barrier across an
entrance to dissuade people from fly tipping, and
upgrading all our signage. We do not generally
do a lot of habitat management work between
April and September, most of our time is taken
up by species surveying. Most notably, the
breeding birds and heath fritillaries but also other
species such as the dormouse.
Autumn has arrived with a bump, and Gordon’s
new scrape and hide were barely installed and
three ruff were there to check it out… “build it
and they will come.” Cliffe Pools hosted a lesser
yellowlegs, an American rarity, but we are
looking forward to the 300,000 regulars back to
the marshes for the winter, not least to remind
Boris Johnson, yet again, why it is designated a
Special Protection Area under EU legislation!
It was a fairly tough year, with most species at or
below average. Nightingale numbers were down
this year with only 20 pairs recorded compared
to last year’s 27. Nightjar, again were slightly
below average, with three displaying males
recorded and two pairs of lesser-spotted
woodpeckers. Unfortunately, the willow warblers
are still reflecting the (southern) national trend
with just 13 pairs compared to last year’s 28.
4
INDOOR MEETINGS
The heath fritillary is one of our rarest and most
localised butterflies and Blean Woods is one of
the top spots in the UK to see it.
16 July
Travels in Columbia
Barry Wright
Heath fritillary
Barry started his talk by showing us where
Colombia was and the huge land area it has,
abutting on Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil
and Peru. Needless to say with such an area,
all types of habitats exist for both birds and
wildlife. Fundacion Pro Aves (similar to the
RSPB) works with local communities to protect
habitats for birds and wildlife.
Barry aimed to convince us that despite the bad
drug reputation and FARC (the Armed
Revolutionary Forces) Colombia was a superb
venue for birdwatching.
Lyndsey Record
There are nearly 1900 registered bird species in
Colombia and more are being identified on a
regular basis. One I believe is the chestnutcapped piha found in the Arrierito district.
Colombia has the largest global bird list. 83 of
the bird species are threatened and Pro Aves is
working diligently to protect the yellow-eared
parrot seriously threatened at present.
Heath fritillaries are very dependent on the sun
and so on a sunny day, the males especially, will
spend most of their time flying low to the ground
and flitting amongst the plants.
The heath fritillaries breeding behaviour and life
cycle provides a very strong focus when it
comes to planning the management of Blean
Woods. Rides are widened and managed on a
yearly rotational basis and areas are coppiced in
order to keep its food source – common cow
wheat - in abundance and ultimately ensure the
survival of this beautiful and rare butterfly.
White-headed wren
The heath fritillary was very late in appearing
this year, the first being seen in the second week
of June......up to three weeks later than normal!
It wasn’t one of our better years with some of the
main colonies declining rather than growing.
However this is most probably due to the cold
spring, as in general numbers are still good,
especially compared to early 2000.
The ride widening and coppicing work started at
the beginning of October and will continue on
through the Christmas and New Year period until
we stop again in April next year ready to start
our surveys.
Obviously Barry could only show us a fraction of
the birds he has photographed on his visits to
Colombia. I liked the idea of the white-headed
wren being the size of a thrush – one bird I recall
from the many species including macaws,
parrots, humming birds, pihas and owls that
were shown during the evening.
This is a good opportunity to introduce Blean’s
new warden - Amy Winchester. She started at
the beginning of October and has hit the ground
running as we head into our busiest time of year.
Amy has moved over to Blean from Northward
Hill and is looking forward to getting stuck in.
With so many species, I for one would like to see
his talk again to enjoy the huge variety of birds,
many new to me.
Lyndsey Record, Acting Warden
Carole Nixon
5
August
No meeting
Some have now been electronically tagged so
the mystery may be solved - a pity in some ways
Dominic thought.
17 September
Meetings with Remarkable Birds
Dominic Couzens
Another common bird Dominic mentioned was
the great tit. The yellow colour on the breast of
these birds is the result of eating caterpillars,
thus the males with the most highly coloured
breasts are the ones chosen as mates by the
females as they must be the ones who would be
the best providers for their families.
Those of us who ventured out to attend this
indoor meeting enjoyed a most entertaining,
amusing and informative evening with Dominic.
His dry sense of humour meant there was a lot
of laughter throughout his talk. Some of his
presentation was about the complicated sex
lives of several species including dunnocks and
pied flycatchers.
The second half of the talk was about less wellknown species. Penguins, one species of which
hatches and raises its young in temperatures as
low as -70◦C and another which breeds in
temperatures as high as 40◦C, a temperature
variation of 110◦C which is remarkable for birds
of the same family.
He began by talking about birds familiar to us all
– just the day before his talk he had
photographed a sparrowhawk in his garden
which had dispatched a blackbird and eaten it all
except for one leg (he wondered where the other
leg was).
He pointed out that a male
sparrowhawk would have to catch between six
and eight birds a day to feed its young – no easy
feat. His next bird was an ‘exotic’ feral pigeon!!
It is still not certain how these birds find their
way home when removed from their territories.
The longest known journey for one of these birds
was from Guernsey to Brazil, a trip of over
7,000Km.
The beautiful sun bird from South Africa is
gradually beginning to hover like a humming bird
– this is thought to be as a result of trumpetshaped flowers which have been introduced into
its habitat. Dominic showed us pictures of the
sword-billed humming bird whose bill is as long
as its body so it has to use its feet for preening!
Dominic talked about many other birds including
road runners, ostriches, lammergeiers, golden
oriels and many more. He finished with pictures
of the orange-rumped parrot from Tasmania.
There are only eleven of these left in the wild so
in all likelihood they will soon become extinct. A
sad story to end with!!
Long-tailed tit
All in all Dominic gave us a wonderful evening
and I’m sure everyone must have learned
something, or in my case a lot, about remarkable
birds!!
Carol Felix
John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
15 October
Transatlantic Travels
Mike Mockler
The long-tailed tit, one of our most charismatic
birds, is not quite as cuddly as it seems.
Feathers with which it makes its nest are taken
from the corpses of birds killed by sparrowhawks
which the tit watches for this purpose. When
these cute little birds cuddle up at night on a
branch in winter, the youngest birds are left on
the outside edges and die first from hypothermia
allowing Mum, Dad and older siblings to survive.
Apparently, at the end
1,000,000 house martins
migration back to Africa but
number of birds no one
majority end up.
Bournemouth-based Mike delighted us with his
fourth visit to MLG and his whistle-stop
photographic tour of Ecuador, the Galapagos
Islands, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Canada and
Patagonia.
It seemed appropriate to begin the journey in the
Galapagos (Tortoise) Islands amongst the iconic
land iguanas, giant tortoises, green turtles and
Sally-Lightfoot crabs as they stimulated so much
thought and influence over Mr. Charles Darwin
himself.
of summer some
make their long
in spite of this huge
knows where the
6
Mike also showed us some great photos of
boobies (Nazca, red-footed and blue-footed),
frigate birds, tropic birds, penguins, gulls and
albatrosses – many of which were endemic to
the Galapagos.
Next stop was mainland
Ecuador itself and the cloud forests in particular,
to see his wonderful images of sword-tailed
hummingbirds and violet -tailed sylph
hummingbirds.
Back on land, Vancouver Island is also home to
large populations of bald eagles, brown (grizzly)
and black bears.
Next stop was the Rockies in fall (autumn) where
Mike managed to photograph his target species
of coyotes, wolves, big-horned sheep, elks and
moose. Mike noted that birds were very few and
far between in the Rockies but he did have a
couple of photos of grey jays, Cooper’s hawks
and northern flickers to share with us.
Blue-footed boobies
Last stop was Patagonia (southern tip of Chile
and Argentina) for some more mammal
watching. Here we were treated to Mike’s
photos of southern sea-lions, elephant seals,
caveys (a hamster-like animal), maras (a harelike animal), pikies (a tennis-ball like animal) and
a hog-nosed skunk.
Mike’s fanfare was the Torres del Pinne
mountains in Chile where he was able to share
with us his fantastic photos of pumas (aka
mountain lion or cougar), Andean condors and
guanaco’s.
Richard Hanman
Costa Rica was next, and high in the volcanic
rainforests Mike showed us photo after photo of
amazing birds of paradise including respondent
quetzls, three-wattled bellbirds, tanagers, honeycreepers, mot-mots and scissor-tailed
flycatchers. It isn’t just the birdlife that attracts
wildlife watchers to Costa Rica as the howler
and capuchin monkeys and sloths compete for
the viewer’s attention with butterflies the size of
napkins, tree-frogs the size of your thumb and
lizards of just about every size and colour
imaginable.
OUTDOOR MEETINGS
Sunday 7 July
Nashenden Valley KWT
Leader Peter Saville
Last year the Nashenden Valley walk attracted
only three members, but as the weather had
been pretty poor it was decided to give the
venue another go. This time there were four of
us, but we were joined by another during the
walk. We had parked at the end of Nashenden
Lane and made our way through the tiny hamlet
of Nashenden, across the bridge over HS1 onto
the Kent Wildlife Trust nature reserve of
Nashenden Down.
After leaving Central America it was time to head
to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica with its 28
endemic species, including red-billed and blackbilled streamertails, black-billed and yellow-billed
parrots, Jamaican woodpeckers, Jamaican
toadys and the vervain hummingbirds (the
second smallest bird in the world).
Linnet
As we made our way
along paths around the
reserve we picked up
some common birds g r e e n f i n c h e s ,
goldfinches, chaffinches,
house sparrows, linnets
and wrens, and then a
little brown job. Despite
our best efforts we could
not decide whether it
was a willow warbler or
a chiffchaff.
RSPB (rspb-images.com)
Our last stop before the interval was easternCanada in the wintertime which gave Mike the
perfect opportunity to share with us his
magnificent photos of snowy owls.
After
refreshments, we headed across to Canada‘s
west coast and to Vancouver Island for a spot of
whale watching. On display were Mike’s photos
of hump-backed whales and orcas (aka killer
whale), as well as sea otters, stella’s sea-lions
and Pacific white-sided dolphins.
7
As we climbed higher we got views over the
valley, but there were not many birds about, just
black-headed gulls, a herring gull and the
inevitable wood pigeons. We then made our
way through the woods without adding to our list,
but when we came out into the open downland
once again we saw skylarks, swifts, whitethroats
and jays and heard both blackcaps and
chiffchaffs. We later added lesser and greater
black-backed gulls and a few more "garden"
birds in the shape of robins, blue tits and
blackbirds.
As we stood looking we also had cormorants,
herring gulls, fulmars, swifts, swallows, martins
and black-headed gulls. I took a stroll to the cliff
and had a brief glimpse of a black redstart. We
tried to get another glimpse so that we could all
get a view, but alas it was not to be.
We headed back for a coffee and then took the
tarmac path across the headland to the beach
keeping our eye out for orchids, but didn’t see
any. We did get views of blue and great tits,
starlings and moorhens. At the beach we had a
solitary rock pipit and more gulls.
There is an area of new plantation on the
reserve, which it is hoped will mature into
woodland. Currently the saplings are pretty
small and there is a variety of wild flowers acting
as ground cover, but despite this there were few
insects and no birds in this area. This was
typical of the whole reserve: the cold spring had
held everything back and the lack of flowers had
led to a dearth of insects and hence not many
birds. The recent warm weather had still to get
things back to where they should have been.
However, there were signs of movement and in
addition to the two dozen species of birds we
saw emperor dragonflies and brimstone, small
tortoiseshell, marbled white, speckled wood,
meadow brown, red admiral and painted lady
butterflies.
Roch pipit
The group split up for the return route, an
oystercatcher was seen on the seaward side but
nothing was added on the trackside path.
It was a pleasant enough walk, but we could
have done with a few more birds - and bees.
This reserve is the newest section of the south
east, made from the spoil from the Channel
tunnel and is recommended especially for those
who maybe can’t walk far or who need flat
terrain. It’s accessed via a single file tunnel just
outside Dover Western Docks. This obviously
causes problems for foreign drivers however – I
witnessed two cars ignoring the red light on the
way in and just heading straight down the tunnel,
and on the way out, I was actually in the tunnel
when a French-registered car came towards me!
Warren Mann
Saturday 20 July
Samphire Hoe
Leader Karen Snow
The day was cooler than it had been, so fleeces
were the order of the day. Seven of us headed
down to the seawall and took a slow walk along
to the usual peregrine spot. En route, a meadow
pipit was spotted on the fence and sheep were
on the bank, one of which seemed to have a bell
similar to those you would normally see in the
Alps!
Karen Snow
Wednesday 31 July
Cliffe Pools RSPB Reserve Evening Walk
Leader Warren Mann
A peregrine was spotted high on the cliff sitting
on a ledge, and we all saw it through the
telescope.
One of our number was in a
wheelchair and a scope was lowered to allow
her to view it. It was then we discovered the two
scopes were trained on different birds!
It
appeared to be a male and female who were
sitting on different ledges looking almost
identical, except that one had one leg tucked up
underneath it.
There were only four of us who made the
journey to Cliffe Pools on a warm, bright summer
evening. There was a brief sighting of a sparrow
hawk for one early arrival. I missed it as I was
talking to two local children explaining why there
was no fishing, swimming or canoeing in the
pools and that it was not a good idea to go
looking for ponies at this time of night.
8
We had limited time and Trevor suggested we
should look for long-eared owls as it got dark.
So after a brief trip up the Pinnacle to get an
overview of the reserve we decided on walking
up the Saxon Shore Way along the side of
Radar Pool to Flamingo to see the high tide
roost.
Still, better luck next time and we all saw some
decent birds.
Initially there were relatively few black-headed
gulls, but we found the rest later. We saw green
woodpeckers, avocets, many coots and greatcrested grebes plus one (and later another) little
grebe. There were redshanks, grey herons and
good numbers of little egrets. Then things
looked up as we saw greenshanks and possible
spotted redshank.
Sunday 4 August
Bough Beech Reservoir
Leader Adrian Olsen
Total number of species seen - 34, plus a good
number of unidentified little brown jobs.
Warren Mann
In 1970 Bough Beech was transformed from a
flooded agricultural valley into the reservoir we
see today with a dam holding back over 10
million cubic metres of water. Situated deep in
the Darent valley it provides an ideal stop off for
passage migrants as they rest and feed up
before continuing their long journey.
We slowly moved up the Saxon Shore Way
using all available viewpoints and confirmed
spotted redshanks and also saw shelducks,
mallards, pochards, grey plovers in breeding
plumage, a lone bar-tailed godwit, oystercatcher,
curlew (with possible whimbrel - but after much
debate we thought not), lapwings and, best of
all, several curlew sandpipers going out of
breeding plumage.
Common sandpiper
Further up the track we saw and heard several
common terns. At the top of Flamingo there
were five great black-backed gulls, dunlins in
breeding plumage, several whimbrels (no doubts
this time), plus a good few hundred blackheaded gulls, including many juveniles in a
variety of plumages.
Richard Hanman
Many resident birds enjoy this tranquil patch of
water and can easily be seen from the causeway
running through the middle of it, so 12 of us
descended onto the causeway on a bright
morning to see our first passage migrants
straight away - a common sandpiper and close
by for comparison of size and behaviour a few
green sandpipers. Great-crested grebes were
the most numerous on the reservoir but tufted
ducks and lapwings were also in good numbers.
We then made our way to meet local naturalist
Frank Cackett, who had previously seen longeared owls on the reserve at dusk. We reached
the likely spot and were told it might be 20 or 30
minutes before there would be much action. As
we waited, it was suggested that we go looking
for barn owls, which had been seen elsewhere
on the reserve. This was not a good move.
Green sandpiper
Three of us returned 30 minutes later after a
fruitless route march to the other side of the
reserve and back. There were no barn owls to
be seen, and we had missed sightings of a
cuckoo and an adult long-eared owl. We waited
as dusk became night with only the mozzies for
company. There were no more sightings of long
-eared owls, but at least we did hear the rather
strange call of the juvenile long-eared owls a
good number of times.
It was a good evening despite the insect bights.
Thanks are due to Frank and Trevor for giving
the rest of us the chance to see long-eared owls,
and our apologies for missing the opportunity.
Richard Hanman
9
Sunday 18 August
Oare Marshes
Leaders Sue Carter/Steve Goodrich
Common terns were a delight to see especially
with young chicks to feed on the man-made
islands. 25 mute swans could be seen in the far
distance while nearby a pied wagtail
accompanied a grey wagtail. Eight mandarin
ducks nonchalantly bobbed up and down along
the waves caused by the cool breeze across the
reservoir. A buzzard appeared high above the
woodland and then a sparrowhawk flew past
with great speed as a kestrel hovered above our
heads.
Temminck’s stint
Herons, cormorants and little egrets were loafing
around the water’s edge as we walked towards
the converted 19th century oast house which
stands as the original Kent Wildlife Trust
information centre, flushing out a green
woodpecker as we went.
On a pleasant sunny morning with a warm
breeze a bakers dozen met in the car park ready
to “do the circuit”. We started by checking the
roadside west scrape for the Temminck's stint,
which had been in residence there for the past
week or so. No sign of it but we did pick up
green sandpipers, two little ringed plovers,
redshanks, ruff, lapwings and yellow wagtails.
We then went to the sea wall and walked west
for 50 yards to look into the small creek which
we found held greenshanks, little grebes,
shovelers and teals and we were rewarded by
the sight of two bearded tits flying into the reeds.
Goldfinch
From the slipway we watched two common
buzzards hanging in the updraught over Harty
Hill. A common tern was on one of the poles
and two turnstones flew towards us from the tide
line. They allowed close views as they posed on
rocks and probed the seaweed for sand
hoppers. A great-crested grebe was on the
Swale.
Handy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Swallows nest under an old barn roof as people
sit and have tea. A hide looks out onto Bough
Beech Brook where linnets, goldfinches, coots
and moorhens were seen. On leaving the hide
Steve Goodrich spotted a greater-spotted
woodpecker hiding in the shadow of a small
coppice.
On the way to the sea hide an inquisitive
common seal kept bobbing up to check our
progress and by the time we reached the hide
the tide was fully in. On the section to the sluice
the highlights were a common snipe, a reed
warbler, a distant peregrine and a couple of
water rails and then Adrian found an emperor
moth caterpillar crawling across the path.
Venturing along the nature trail a commotion
ensued in the sky where swallows and house
martins were mobbing a sparrowhawk as it
seemed to attempt to land in the field we were
in. It took off into the woods carrying what
seemed to be a bird. Luckily we had camera
man Richard Hanman on hand snapping away
at it to reveal to us all on his 'diggey' some great
'pics' of a poor moorhen with its long legs and
big feet dangling from the talons of this master
hunter.
We stood for some time surveying the massed
ranks of roosting black-tailed godwits, blackheaded gulls and avocets before spotting Karen
approaching from the opposite direction. She
mentioned that she had seen the Bonaparte's
gull which appears to have made Oare its new
home on this side of the Pond. Oare regular,
Murray Wright, was happy to put us onto the
bird, which is a smaller and daintier version of
our black-headed gull.
We totalled 43 species for the day.
Adrian Olsen
10
Ostrich
We picked up
a few common
s p e c i e s
culminating
with a male
bullfinch
but
little else. As
we
reached
the
Wildlife
Park we got
m o r e
animated as
our
focus
switched
to
such exotica
as
water
buffalos,
Other (rspbz e b r a s ,
mages.com)
ostriches
(surely a first
for the Medway group bird list!), giraffes and an
assortment of unidentified antelopes and deer.
Unfortunately we had all failed to bring along our
field guides to East African Mammals!
We learned, via the wonders of modern science,
that this American gull was named by Prince
Charles Louis Bonaparte, who was both a
zoologist and a nephew of Napoleon. This bird
was a life tick for some of the group and for
Wendy it was her second of the day, courtesy of
the beardies!
Other waders seen were golden plovers, some
still resplendent in their breeding plumage,
ringed plovers and dunlin. Raptors were
represented by a female kestrel and a female
marsh harrier, in addition to the buzzards and
peregrine mentioned above. Passerines were in
short supply with singles of meadow pipit,
common whitethroat and pied wagtail and small
numbers of house sparrows, goldfinches and
linnets. Not a single reed bunting was seen. All
three hirundines were fly-bys with small groups
of swallows, sand martins and house martins
passing through.
As we split up to go our separate ways, Brian
saw a stoat run across the road in front of him
and Karen, Steve and I witnessed the spectacle
of a young female peregrine stoop at the birds
on the east flood, miss and then do a low level
attack which was also unsuccessful.
A footpath to the right climbs up the escarpment
and brought us a cocktail of butterflies including
painted lady, small tortoiseshell, comma, red
admiral, speckled wood and common blue. Our
identification skills were tested (and found
wanting) when we saw a group of four raptors
circling and interacting but unfortunately they
were directly into the sun. There was a
consensus of unanimity that three of them were
buzzards but we were all equally sure that the
fourth one was not. None of us could come up
with a firm ID from the silhouette and we marked
it off as a possible harrier of some description.
The sunny weather produced a wealth of
butterflies which included whites, meadow
browns, gatekeepers, small coppers, small
skippers, peacocks, tortoiseshells, common
blues and clouded yellows. Trevor pointed out
some sea-lavendar which was a colourful
addition to the shoreline.
Thanks to all who took part for an enjoyable
morning with 53 bird species recorded.
The return trip on the opposite side of the canal
is much more open with views to the south
across Romney Marsh and the canal (devoid of
birdlife) on the left. The sun was beating down
on us by this time so we walked briskly until my
other (better?) half picked up the cronking of a
raven overhead which we were able to pick up
OK although it was quite high in the sky. This
completed our full compliment of corvids, having
seen carrion crows, rooks, jackdaws, magpies
and jays earlier.
Sue Carter & Steve Goodrich
Thursday 29 August
Botolph’s Bridge/Royal Military Canal Hythe
Leader Robin Smith
This was a first visit to this venue for the Group
and will certainly warrant a return visit in the
future. That is not to say that it was teeming with
birds around every corner but it offered a
pleasant walk alongside the Military Canal with a
sprinkling of good birds thrown in and plenty of
interest from the Port Lympne Wildlife Park
alongside the canal.
As we neared the end of the walk we all
managed to get fleeting glimpses of two
kingfishers. Then right at the end as we were
chatting in the car park a raptor call drew our
eyes upwards to see two hobbies finish off the
morning in great style.
The outward walk takes you through an area of
scrub and mature trees with the Lympne
escarpment on your right but offering only limited
views of the canal on your left.
Robin Smith
11
Thursday 12 September
Dungeness RSPB Reserve
Leader Marie Tilley
Along the path to the next hide we picked up
mute swans, grey herons, reed warblers and
Cetti's warblers. Adrian Haywood managed to
get a glimpse of the latter bird, but the rest of us
had to be content with just hearing it. At the
Scott hide we all managed to get definitive views
of the black-necked grebes. We were then
joined by birders from the Firth Hide who told us
that seconds after we had left they were treated
to a fly-by from a black tern.
Six of us assembled in the car park on a dry but
somewhat dreary September morning. As usual
the early arrivals were able to tell the rest of us
what they had already spotted. Barry and Sue
Gould had seen a linnet but this was rather
trumped by Adrian Olsen's report of crows
mobbing a short-eared owl. They were not
about when the rest of us arrived.
On the way to the Christmas Dell Hide we saw a
kestrel, and Barry Gould had a glimpse of a
possible hobby, which was confirmed when we
all rushed outside to get a view. At the Denge
Marsh Hide we added greylags (there were
loads of them) but not the hoped for great white
egret. However, Adrian Haywood spotted two
peregrines perched on neighbouring pylons.
We made a good start from the visitor centre
with swallows and house martins being seen
amongst the many sand martins. We also
picked up coots, lapwings, little egrets, greatcrested grebes, shovelers, pochards and blackheaded gulls. We left the visitor centre and saw
both little grebes and moorhens in the pond and
had good views of wheatears on the shingle
bank behind. We also saw the first of many
cormorants around the reserve.
Whitethroat
The view from the Firth Hide confirmed that the
water levels were down and this had left
exposed a good number of islands and, more
importantly, much muddy ground in front of the
hide which had attracted good numbers of
waders as well as the ducks and gulls. Several
bar-tailed godwits first caught our eye, together
with avocets, ringed plovers, golden plovers,
snipe and redshanks, plus both great and lesser
black-backed gulls. We were fortunate enough
to see both ruffs and reeves, which sometimes
got close to each other, enabling us to see the
difference in size.
John Bridges
(rspb-images.com)
The two Adrians' saw whitethroat as we made
our way to the view point. There did not seem to
be much around at first glance, but soon some
had glimpses of marsh harriers and hobbies and
Adrian Olsen found two buzzards perched way
apart on the same fence. Then Elizabeth Mann
found the great white egret and we all had good
views as it walked along the edge of the reed
bed, before being disturbed by a passing marsh
harrier, whereupon it flew off into the reed bed.
The egret was a life tick for both Sue and Barry
Gould.
A greenshank gave us lovely views and then we
picked out both dunlins and little stints. We gave
these latter birds very close scrutiny as this is
where a semi-palmated sandpiper had been
reported earlier in the week. We could not find
it, and its absence was confirmed by another
birder. He had seen it here two days before, but
had spent the best part of three hours looking for
it on this occasion, but without any luck. We
also saw wigeons, teals, gadwalls and tufted
ducks. As well as a pied wagtail, we were lucky
enough to see a small flock of yellow wagtails.
The males were particularly smart. As we were
leaving the hide another birder directed us to
three birds, which he said were two little grebes
and one black-necked grebe. By the time we left
the whole hide was trying to sort them out, but
opinions differed as to which was which.
However, Elizabeth Mann thought she had
clinched it when she saw that one of the birds
had a red eye.
We made our way back to the visitor centre for a
somewhat belated lunch. Whilst watching the
bird feeders, we added blue tits and chaffinches
to our earlier great tits, but overall it was
remarkable how few passerines were about in
the scrub around the reserve.
Four of us elected to go the ARC Pits and on the
way we saw tree sparrows on the bird feeders in
the front garden of the farm. We went to the
hide and again the water levels were ideal, with
the islands and scrapes attracting many waders,
including good numbers of lapwings.
12
We had seen many of the species previously,
but it was still good to see another little stint,
together with ringed plovers, snipe and dunlins.
We added curlews, black-tailed godwits and
Canada geese to our list before we left.
The 70 plus pink-footed geese had only just
arrived and I could only wonder if they could be
the same birds I’d seen in Spitz-bergen in the
Arctic last month.
Hen and marsh harriers were seen and a small
harrier on high, which we will always debate as
to whether it was Montague’s harrier.
Fortunately Richard Hanman got photos of it, so
maybe we might get a definitive answer
eventually.
On our way back to the car park we heard a
green woodpecker and at the car park Adrian
Haywood picked up a juvenile great-spotted
woodpecker clinging to a telegraph pole. He
then saw a passing sparrow hawk to round off
our day. Although we missed one or two, overall
we saw sixty four species and had a very
enjoyable and civilised day’s bird watching.
Dungeness had delivered once again.
We were lucky enough to bump into a Medway
Local Group founding member, David Wilson,
who lives locally and promised to come to come
along to our Fortieth Anniversary (Ruby)
celebrations next year at Northward Hill. As we
walked back to the centre reminiscing, he told us
that we were walking along the East Bank made
famous by Richard Richardson; illustrator of the
first Collins Bird Guide published in 1952.
Warren Mann
Sunday 15 September
Cley Marshes NWT Reserve
Coach Trip
Leader David Saunders
Richard was born in London in 1922 and by the
age of seven had already developed an interest
in birds with his earliest surviving sketch of a
puffin dated 1936.
Our trip on the 15th of September to Cley Marsh
Norfolk Wildlife Reserve was our final coach trip
of the year, and well attended by 27 members.
Greylag geese
Richard Hanman
Leaving Sittingbourne at 7 am it was a long four
and half hour trip. The weather forecast hadn’t
looked promising but in the event the predicted
down-pour held off in general to the end of the
afternoon. For me personally it was my first time
there, although I had called in briefly at the
award winning visitor centre a couple of
summers ago.
Having left school at sixteen he worked in an
office in London but spent most of his free time
bird-watching or sketching in St James Park,
keeping illustrated diaries of his observations.
Following a spell with the Royal Norfolk
Regiment, Richard eventually settled at Cley.
No visit to Cley in North Norfolk was complete
without meeting up with him and spending many
happy hours in his company. He established the
Cley Bird Observatory and served as its only
warden until it closed in 1963.
We were lucky enough at the onset to see huge
numbers of godwits feeding on the pools and
every now and then wheeling around the skies.
13
However, as a self-taught artist, Richard had
been perfecting his skills of bird illustrations
since his teenage years and his pictures
appeared in over twenty books as well as bird
reports. His most successful commission was as
the illustrator of the Pocket Guide to British Birds
which was published in 1952 followed two years
later by The Pocket Guide to Nests and Eggs.
A two sentence history of Cley:- During the
Middle Ages the marsh was sea covered at high
tide allowing boats to navigate to a harbour near
to the Church. In 1949 a series of banks were
built to protect the village from flooding thus
increasing the grazing land.
So to re-cap, apart from the (possible)
Montague’s harrier, the bird of the day was seen
on the journey back, when a red kite suddenly
flew low across the road ahead.
Sue Mills and Sue Carter photo taken by Robin
Smith.
The terrain as we moved further on through
Fairlight Glen was certainly far from easy and
the relief of the downhill stretches was tempered
in the knowledge that 'what goes down must
come back up!' For certain periods the puffing
and panting of six individuals drowned out the
noise of the hirundines above. We headed
towards a viewpoint that was marked on the
map but a horde (or should the collective noun
be a 'zip') of flies forced us to beat a retreat. By
this time we had decided to forsake further
exploration into Ecclesbourne Glen and instead
sought a more gentle route to return to the car
park.
David Saunders
We are advised by Sue Carter that it has been
confirmed from Richard Hanman’s photo that it
was indeed a Montague’s harrier. We can also
confirm that red kites aplenty can be seen above
the M40 in the Chiltern Hills, over 50 at one time.
Editors.
Sunday 22 September
Hastings Country Park East Sussex
Leader Robin Smith
The name 'Country Park' conjures up images of
a formal parkland habitat with perhaps an area
set aside for a children's playground but
Hastings Country Park is far from that. It offers a
superb mixture of woods, farmland, gorse,
bracken and grassland dissected by small
streams that tumble down towards the English
Channel.
Apart from the omnipresent hirundines the
bushes were alive with assorted warblers with
both common and lesser whitethroats, blackcaps
and chiffchaffs being most plentiful.
The
farmland areas produced linnets and
yellowhammers and in the woodland green and
great-spotted woodpeckers were seen. A mixed
flock of long-tailed tits and warblers included a
nuthatch.
Big birds were represented by
buzzard, grey heron and raven.
A lone
wheatear sitting high up on some power cables
caused some identification problems for a while
and the final bird of the day was a mistle thrush
spotted on a telegraph pole as we headed for
the tea room.
Six of us met in the spacious car park (with clean
toilets nearby) on what turned out to be a calm,
quiet day without even the hint of a breeze. All
we could hear above us was the constant
twittering of thousands of house martins and
swallows that were stocking up with food before
setting off in search of warmer climes.
This is a site that ticks a lot of boxes. It has good
and plentiful parking, toilets, an excellent visitors'
centre and the Fairlight Tea Room offers yummy
cakes in a quaint setting. It is, however, not for
the unfit or less-able and I am sure that we all
slept well that evening.
Our route took us initially to Warren Glen and we
remarked that it was a pity that neither Warren
nor Glen were present in our party. As it
happened a third of our party were called Sue
and you can imagine the squeals of delight when
we came upon a bench looking out to sea with
the legend 'For Sue' inscribed upon the back.
Robin Smith
14
Blackcap
Saturday 5 October
Sandwich Bay/Pegwell Bay
Leader Richard Hanman
I arrived at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory
(SSBO) at 8 am to meet Eugene and his pals at
the ringing station. There was already a lot of
activity with 50+ birds captured in the mist nets
on the first tranche; including 30 chiffchaffs, 19
blackcaps, one reed warbler and one excitable
song thrush.
At 9 am I was joined by eight other keen birders
which included six from RSPB Medway Local
Group (MLG) - Sue & Steve, Warren &
Elizabeth, Giuseppe and Adrian and two new
guests - Nigel & Judy Davies, who had seen the
walk advertised on our new website, so we did
our best to extend a warm MLG welcome.
Richard Hanman
The second tranche of birds from the mist nets
came in just after 9 am and produced more
chiffchaffs and blackcaps, but also siskins, a
robin, willow warbler, goldfinch, chaffinch, a
gorgeous tiny firecrest, and meadow pipits of
both English and Scottish decent. See if you
can tell the difference in the picture below –
The woods on the opposite side were
surprisingly quiet – maybe all the birds were
wrapped up in little bags back at the ringing
station! – but we did see blue tit, great tit,
blackcap and a green woodpecker, as well as
red admiral, large white and comma butterflies.
At the hide overlooking the scrape we picked up
water rails, moorhens, teals, stock doves, little
egrets and grey herons. A Jack snipe had been
seen here recently but we were not lucky
enough to catch sight of it today. Back on the
road, and heading towards the sea, we added
stonechats and kestrels to our walk list as well
as numerous dragonflies and a pretty small
copper butterfly.
At the seafront we paused for a bit of seawatching but the very pleasant, sunny October
morning had the sea flat calm and us all
stripping off an outer layer of clothing. Just as
we’d given up all hope of any maritime
excitement (unless you count a lesser blackbacked gull) we were lucky enough to see two
wheatears and a single red-throated which was
fishing about 30 m off the beach.
McMipit is on the right holding the Iron Brew!. Photo
by Richard Hanman
As we turned left through the gate onto the
footpath crossing the Royal St. George’s Golf
Course, there was healthy debate within the
group as to the days ‘best bird’ and it was
agreed that it was a joint tie between the captive
firecrest and the wild red-throated diver. Late
additions to the list of skylarks and pheasants
didn’t change the outcome of the debate, but
they did increase the walk total to 45 birds, four
butterflies and two new faces. We arrived back
at the SBBO car park at 1 pm.
From the SBBO car park we added ring-necked
parakeets, collared doves, wood pigeons,
magpies, carrion crows, rooks, jackdaws, house
martins, barn swallows, house sparrows,
blackbirds, starlings, pied wagtails, lapwings and
mallards.
At 10 am we set off down Knightrider Road
observing black-headed gull and herring gull
resting in a field full of sheep.
15
All in all, a very pleasant three hour ramble
around a variety of habitats in a beautiful part of
Kent.
The families and children had all relocated to the
burning campfire which had been erected about
100 metres distant.
The patience, enthusiasm and hospitality shown
by Eugene, Peter and the bird ringing group at
SBBO always makes this a very enjoyable
annual outing for RSPB MLG.
As I approached I could hear the sound of
children playing, lots of laughter and
conversation as everyone was seated around
the large campfire having clearly settled in.
Many had cooked their own dinners and the
RSPB were providing hot soup for all concerned.
The children were clearly enjoying themselves
and appeared totally carefree in their
environment (not a mobile phone or computer in
sight!!)
Richard Hanman.
PUBLIC EVENTS
Saturday 10th August
Big Wild Sleepout
Northward Hill
Meteor shower
Over the weekend of the 9 th, 10th & 11th of
August the RSPB promoted their UK wide event
– the Big Wild Sleepout. The event encouraged
thousands of children and their families to get
close to nature by sleeping under the stars in
their garden, wild place or RSPB nature reserve.
As part of this promotion the RSPB reserve at
Northward Hill played host to a number of
families with up to 30 pitches laid out for families
to put up their tents in preparation for the
adventure. The event was put together by Amy
Winchester, one of the residential volunteers at
Northward Hill, together with a number of RSPB
staff. However the Medway group also played
its part with Edward, his finance Jane Hotham
and yours truly happy to support the occasion.
At about 8.00 pm everyone began to reassemble
back at the Marshland Viewpoint. The events
that had been planned included woodland walks,
bat detecting, moth trapping and of course story
telling. In addition the Mid Kent Astronomical
Society was also present with a wide range of
optical equipment and was hoping to find the
Perseid Meteor Shower as well as spotting stars
and galaxies late into the night.
John Terrance Turner
(rspb-images.com)
As everyone was assembling we could see large
numbers of rooks returning to their roost in the
dusk evening light. Then, as if right on cue, we
were treated to the sight of a barn owl rising and
falling at it was hunting for its food. Many of the
children had never seen a barn owl before and it
was a pleasure to see the joy and wonder on
their faces as they were glued to the sight of the
ghost like figure rising and falling.
Saturday 16th was a warm summers evening
albeit a bit cloudy. The families and their children
had been arriving since early afternoon although
I wasn’t required until later and arrived at the site
about 7.00 pm. Edward and Jane had already
arrived and were looking after the campsite to
protect the tents that had been pitched at the
Marshland Viewpoint and the valuable
equipment therein.
The group split into two parties for a woodland
walk – one fairly short for the younger children
and a second longer walk for older children and
their parents. I was happy to perform the role of
“back stop” on the longer walk which was led by
Rolf Williams, communications officer for The
RSPB North Kent Marshes Reserves. As the
walk commenced the light was gloomy but as we
entered the woodland it became very dark.
16
Rolf clearly enjoyed his role as leader and chief
storyteller. At one point he got all the children to
crouch down and shine their torches into the
undergrowth as he told them, in his scariest
voice, about all the wildlife that lived there. We
heard a number of soundings on the bat
detectors that we had been carrying but
unfortunately, possibly due to our large number,
there were no more sightings. There was one
exception however as we all witnessed the
International Space Centre as it flew over the
reserve – something not seen by many of the
adults before.
It would be useful to have feedback from those
involved (good and bad) about everything from
communication prior the event, layout, content
and delivery on the day.
Please can you extend my thanks to anyone
who also took part that I may not have contact
details for.
Kind Regards
Marie Calvert
Reserves Administrator
Northward Hill Nature Reserve
As we walked back to the campsite there were
clearly a number of tired children who would
undoubtedly sleep soundly given their
escapades. I left the site to return home about
10.30pm but as I did so I thought to myself what
a wonderful sight the children would have when
they woke up in the morning sunlight over the
fantastic views offered at the Viewpoint.
Hi all,
Firstly, I’d like to echo Marie’s thanks to you all.
We couldn’t have pulled it off without your hard
work and commitment. I must single out Marie
for particular tribute for the monumental effort
that she put in to her first W&CF. Fantastic!
Was this a trip for the serious birdwatcher
looking to boost his/her record of sightings? –
probably not.
However this was a great
adventure for families and their children stepping
out into nature and experiencing the countryside
– absolutely. It is important to remember that
many of the children will be tomorrow’s twitchers
and as such the event was well worth
supporting.
I would not be too despondent about the visitor
numbers being low – we still engaged with over
1200 people in one day – that’s not to be sniffed
at and, for the first time ever, we actually made a
small profit!
Sunday 8 September
NKMR Wildlife and Countryside Fair
Usually the Fair runs at a loss to the Society of
£1000 per year – we accept that because of the
‘small’ price it is to pay for disseminating our
messages and for the clarion call of saving this
wonderful piece of England, but we’ve never
liked it. This year we made £600. Every cloud
(and there were a few on the day) has a silver
lining!
Dear All,
Cheers,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank
everyone involved with this year’s Wildlife &
Countryside Fair, with particular thanks to the
Medway Local Group and High Halstow
Women’s Institute for providing so many
volunteers for the day. All the local volunteers
that we have, residential volunteers and RSPB
staff contributed so much on the day and the
many weeks leading up to it. We are very lucky
to have this support. Sadly the visitor numbers
were down this year and I would guess that the
rain didn’t help us, but all in all it was
successful. We have a very small team here at
Northward Hill, so this event could not happen
without all your help.
Julian Nash
Site Manager
North Kent Marshes
Danny Gavigan
Volunteer for a day
I was a grumpy volunteer having been given a
different job to the requested ones.
I whinged to the organiser who then explained
the reason for the change; too many of us
wanted to play at the kids craft table. I was less
than gracious in accepting this and then ended
up having a fabulous time.
My duties were welcoming and counting the
visitors as they arrived, which, on paper
sounded pretty boring but in fact was good fun
once I got the hang of it.
This was the first Wildlife & Countryside Fair that
I have been involved in and I definitely learnt a
lot from it.
17
The thought was more daunting than the doing,
possibly because I am naturally a quite shy
person.
Unfortunately, as it was so busy at the entrance,
I did not have the opportunity of looking round
the fair though I did have time to go to the hog
roast stall where the food was so much nicer
than the boring sandwiches I had brought with
me.
There were several of us at the entrance
covering general information, giving out and
explaining the kids exploring trail and the selling
of raffle tickets. I have never been at ease with
pushing anyone into buying something that they
do not really want especially as the main prize
was camping gear; very nice if you are a camper
but not if you are eighty something and using a
zimmer frame.
I went from a grumpy volunteer to a very happy
volunteer in a matter of half a day, so, if I offer
any advice to other shy people, it would be to go
for it and enjoy yourself.
Carole Coulthard
35 YEARS OF CHRISMAS SALES STALL AT
HEMPSTED VALLEY SHOPPING CENTRE
In Birdseye, Summer 2013 edition, we gave our
readers an idea of the money we have made
over the last 34 years at this event for the RSPB.
Now with the aid of some present members we
would like to give you an idea of how the sales
event has developed.
Initially Medway local Group started selling
goods supplied by South East Regional Office
(SERO) of the RSPB at regular film shows run
by them in Chatham.
We later sold the
remainder of the goods at our indoor
meetings. In 1979 Bob and Ann Scott from
Northward Hill asked if we could sell 'out of date'
goods at Hempstead Valley. They arranged
space in the underground car park and we were
there every weekend in October and November very cold and damp.
First left, Carole at an activity she did volunteer for at
Riverside Country Park
Several visitors did their best to avoid us,
possibly they thought that there was a charge for
the programme that we were waving around but
it was free. The majority were happy to have a
programme thrust at them with an explanation of
what needed to be paid for, what was free and
then to be directed to the kids trail and raffle
ticket table which did quite a good trade.
After several years, the Management of
Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre (HVSC)
asked the Group if we would like space in the
run up to Christmas in the main mall. We then
had a super area where the coffee cafe is
now. We had two wagons with sales goods on
them and a video player showing tapes of
wildlife. There were trees in the area and we had
toy birds in the trees and bird song playing. We
also had 3-4 tables for sales goods. With sale or
return goods from SERO we had an amazing
amount to sell and goods not sold had to be
returned by 1st January. The Group was sent a
'wish list' book of various projects where we
would like any profits to be used.
The weather was a bit variable, a mixture of
sunshine, cloud, sometimes chilly breeze and
ending in a downpour just before the official
finishing time. For me it was fine as I was
moving around to welcome visitors and keeping
warm but I know that one colleague was colder
than the cold drinks on her stall.
Many visitors said that they would come back for
their raffle tickets. A method that I have used
many times instead of a direct ‘I don’t want to
buy one thank you’, but one lady and her young
son did dash back just in time. For me the
highlight of the day was this lady and young lad,
about 10 minutes later, winning the first prize.
They are campers and the young lad just could
not stop jumping up and down with excitement.
In these early days we do not believe these
sales and profits were attributed to the Group.
In 1984 it was the Group’s 10 th Anniversary and
fifth year at HVSC so we decided to celebrate in
a big way.
18
We had a week--long display in the mall at
Hempstead Valley, where we had videos
showing RPSB films continuously, large sales
tables, and bird oriented games for the children
and plenty of members answering questions
from the public. The committee had persuaded
the two supermarkets, Sainsbury and Presto, to
let us put RSPB stickers on brands such as
Penguin Biscuits, Birds Custard and Famous
Grouse Whisky and many other products. Any
customers who had a sticker on their purchase
received a small prize.
In 2007 the management of HVSC decided all
charity stalls should be located in a smaller area
outside the Wallis shop, next to the flower stall,
where it has been ever since.
We owe a debt of gratitude to all the members
who have helped to organise and run the stall for
the last 34 years, particularly the late Linda
Sweeney and Carole Nixon and their supporters
and our sincere thanks to the management of
HVSC for their continuing support
Information supplied by: - Carole Nixon, Dave
Hale, Des and Carol Felix, Doug Grant, Heather
& John Pollard, Robin West
The Evening Post also ran a nightly bird quiz in
their paper culminating with the name of a bird
on the Saturday. Surprise the bird was the
Avocet! We contacted the local schools to get
the children involved, again with quizzes or by
doing paintings of birds, and the well-known
Radio Kent Wildlife Presenter, Dr. (we have
forgotten his name!!) gave a talk on the Saturday
afternoon and presented the prizes.
FATHERS’ DAY AT RSPB NORTHWARD HILL
Sunday 16 June 2013
Birds, mammals and insects are parents as well
and 50% are fathers so it was fitting to spend a
day at Northward Hill RSPB thinking of
parentage and fatherhood in particular. The
woodland car park is a good place to start and a
slow descent along the metalled track enabled
us to listen to the jackdaws overhead, the cooing
woodpigeons and watching a red admiral
sunning itself on the concrete.
By 1998, Carole Nixon was in charge and
getting her stock from HQ and sale or return
goods from RSPB Dungeness Reserve shop.
Dungeness Reserve shop continues to supply
us with goods to this day. We had five full sized
tables - plus a half sized table used exclusively
for recruitment – right inside one of the two
doors where the coffee cafe is now, which
blasted us with cold air when they opened
automatically, but meant we had a continuous
stream of potential customers down both sides
of the stall.
Wren
Carole Nixon retired in 2003 and Marie Tilley
took on responsibility for the event, together with
her role as Group treasurer, ably assisted by her
husband Rob. Des and Carol Felix joined them
in the organisation of the event in 2005 and
Warren and Elizabeth Mann in 2006 and this
team has run it ever since, ably assisted by the
30 or so group volunteers who help staff the
stall.
Mike Langman
(rspb-images.com)
Christmas sales stall HVSC 2008. From left Carol Felix,
Adrian and Lynda Olsen
Hidden in the undergrowth a wren sang its
powerful song. Above a chiffchaff was usefully
singing its name in a hawthorn. Further down the
path a blackcap sang beautifully as a green
woodpecker yaffled on a long-dead elm.
A
great-spotted woodpecker jip-jip-jiped away on
the bough of a far oak, maybe to warn of the
foraging jay nearby.
A flash of white as a green-veined white butterfly
flew off the path ahead into the greenery.
19
At the Northward Hill viewpoint it was incredible
to see The Shard due west and Canvey Island
across the mighty River Thames in Essex. From
Ewart’s Wood below a cuckoo called and
whitethroats scolded their chattery warble.
On the way to the heronry a hobby hawk sat on
a heron trail post surveying the marsh for a
meal, seemingly in no particular hurry. 45
minutes later, after some stretching
exercises, it set off across the
grasslands, twisting and
turning in chase of a
dragonfly. Overhead a
peregrine patrolled the
skies
over
the
scrape.
Linnet and goldfinch tinkled on the overhead
pylons. In the distance a family of six mistle
thrushes fed in the orchard.
David Saunders
ROBIN’S RAMBLINGS –
RENEWING MEMBERSHIP 2012
‘Twas on one cold and winters day
On Elmley Marsh, so dull and grey
Where no mortal soul should be
Just members of the RSPB
I came upon a lass so fair
Who kindly asked me ‘should I care
To join the merry Medway band
And spread the message o’er the land
Hobby
Of ducks and geese and waders too
At Cliffe Pools as well as Hoo
To come and join the many walks
And come and hear the monthly talks’
Richard Allan
(rspb-images.com)
A couple of hundred swifts had congregated by
now to feed on the loft-borne insect life and I
wondered if any hirundine fathers fell prey to
either hobby or peregrine and did not see
Fathers Day out.
On the reservoirs Canada and greylag geese
were seen amongst the mallards, tufted,
shelduck and pochard. Little egret and redshank
fed by the water’s edge. A pair of black-necked
grebe dived repeatedly after dinner having
arrived a couple of days previously.
Walking back to the car park at Bromhey Farm a
kestrel plummeted earthbound, undercarriage
down, in anticipation of a strike; I quickened my
pace to see the outcome, but was distracted by a
little owl staring at me with his white eyebrows
accentuating his gaze from the barn top.
So impressed was I, with what I heard
The lengths you go to protect your bird(s)
That I felt the need to join
So find enclosed six pound coin(s)
Robin Smith
EDITORS NOTES
Please let us have your articles ASAP or at the
latest by 18 February 2014 for the Spring
edition.
Editors
Editors: Des and Carol Felix
72 Marshall Road, Rainham, Kent. ME8 0AW
or medwayrspb_descar@btinternet.com
The RSPB Medway Local Group Website :
www.rspb.org.uk/groups/medway
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RSPB Medway Local Group.
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