Saving Swanscombe

Emma Marsh

Donna Zimmer is a campaigner and RSPB volunteer based in Kent. Here she describes the Swanscombe Peninsula, and the work of the “Save Swanscombe Peninsula” Group 

Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent is one of my favourite green spaces. It’s an urban wilderness with an outstanding variety of habitats that attracts some very special species. This includes a wide diversity of invertebrate…

Despite the cold, there were still a lot of visitors on the reserve. I have seen numbers rise consistently during lockdown, and the same at RSPB Cliffe Pools as people are looking to explore new venues to take their 'local' exercise. Let's hope their new discoveries of our fantastic countryside and wildlife continue after the pandemic. I've also noticed an increase in families with children out in the fresh air (and it…

I just want to update the people as to where we are regarding Medway Council, Homes England, Esquires, Lodge Hill and the Nightingales. As you may be aware the council have been awarded £170,000,000 for a Housing Infrastructure Fund, HIF for short

Most of which is ear-marked to be spent on the Hoo Peninsula, including a new railway station at Sharnal Street on the outskirts of High Halstow. It will also pay for…

Today as i drove onto the reserve there were a huge number of redwing in the Pear Orchard feeding on the ground as they are apt to do. I was picking up my ropes and hooks for removing of the tyres from the muds at Bloors Wharf at Riverside Country Park by the Norse Staff there. As I left great clouds of them flew over my car as I headed for the exit.

There are still a lot of Redpoll around this weekend and I haven't seen any Redwing or Fieldfare around for a few days when I think about it, so maybe they have left now. They were a week ago turning up in local villages so maybe their food supply is diminishing.

A huge amount of Waterfowl are still out on the marsh viewable from Sweeney Viewpoint including Mute Swans, Coot, Greylag Geese, Canada Geese, Wigeon, Teal…

I am lucky enough to have Northward Hill only a five minute drive from my house, so in lockdown I can quite legitimately utilise it for my daily hour exercise. Today meeting the Warden Will in the car-park for a quick catch up. He told me the week had been quite difficult out in the open exposed to the elements and the sub-zero temperatures of the past few days. I told him I could relate to that after working for 6 years…

Here on the Peninsula we are blessed with not one but two Nationally and Internationally important RSPB reserves, add to that Lodge Hill, the former army camp and Great Chattenden Wood and we are hugely fortunate. The two reserves are of course RSPB Northward Hill an RSPB Cliffe Pools.

Both are managed all year round by two Wardens and a Site Manager, supported by interns and an army of volunteers. So what can we see…

After my last blog some time ago now, probably before I went on our Round the World Cruise, early January last year when Corona was still a bottled lager beer, things have changed in so many ways we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams (or should that be nightmares). Today talking to Will the Warden at Northward Hill I realise, somewhat belatedly, I need to start writing this blog again to keep everyone abreast…

I was reminded of this little gem this morning and I thought it worth repeating, as it cheered me up thinking about when the reserve re-opens. I dedicate it to all the hard-working staff on the reserves and the fabulous Walnut Tree in the over-flow car park. Over the years it has been home to Jackdaws, Squirrels and Tawny Owls.

Trees

Alfred Joyce Kilmer 1886-1918

I think that I will never see

A poem lovely as a tree…

As I drove onto the reserve mid afternoon a Kestrel was hovering over the pear orchard, against the cold, clear blue sky it would have made a great photo. Experience has taught me getting the camera out of the bag affixing the telephoto lens, opening the window and focussing on the bird  was never going to happen as they never stay still in one place for more than ten of fifteen seconds. I had to remind myself to have…

Today it was my pleasure as an RSPB Medway Local Group member to be at Foxes and Badgers classes at St Werburgh Primary School, Hoo, near Rochester to give them a talk on the Owls of Northward Hill.

This year for us on the RSPB reserve it’s been very successful with at least four Barn Owls fledging, two Tawny and two Little Owls as well. All, it has to be noted within a short walk from the Bromhey Farm office.

Earlier this year I was contacted by a very nice gentleman who wished to put a plaque on a bench in the woods in memory of his wife who had passed away last year. The bench he was proposing to place it on has a special place in his family and has many fond  memories for them and their Grandchildren.

RSPB Warden Will Tofts said "We are very happy to help the Meredith family place the plaque in memory of Liz Meredith at…

Saturday 9 November   10am—4pm

DUNGENESS LIGHTHOUSE AND RSPB RESERVE (WC)

Park in Old Lighthouse car park, TN29 9NA (TR088169).  Gulls, gannets & grebes on the sea. Later at RSPB reserve TN29 9PS (TR067184) for shovelers, wigeon, goldeneyes & pintails, + egrets, herons and harriers.  Bring binoculars if you have them and a packed lunch. Outdoor meetings are free of charge.

Thursday 14 November              7:30pm - 9:4…

It was two or three months ago I was approached by Fiona Spirals (through the RSPB stalwart volunteer Lygia Shubert) to ask if I could asssist in the removal of the plastic at Higham Bight on the North Kent Marsh. I suppose I am probably best placed to assist in such a project, having done several such clearances on the southern Kentish shores of Englands' most famous river, stretching back almost three years now.…

I arrived at Northwatd Hill RSPB Reserve about 10.30 this morning and bumped into a couple scanning the brambles on the track down to Bromhey Farm office, being nosey, of course I asked them if there was anything of interest. They said a male Redstart had just landed on the road with a load a finches a short while ago, but had not bee seen since. Parking my car I off loaded the muddied ropes and grappling hooks we'd used…

Guest Blogger: Alice McCourt, Warden Intern

It has been a busy spring/summer season again this year, with lots of highlights from our breeding birds. After much frustration, we have finally been able to confirm the first breeding record of Cattle Egret for Kent in the woodland at Northward Hill! It has been a very exciting find, and we are grateful for all the hard work by Murray Orchard and Terry Paternoster to survey…

Guest Blogger: Alice McCourt, Warden Intern

As an intern, I am very lucky to be so immersed in reserve life, but recently I’ve had the pleasure of getting very well acquainted with some of our owl species as they have given me a front row seat to their night-time antics. To celebrate Owl Awareness Day, I'm very pleased to share the news of their breeding success across the reserve this year!

The season started…

Having spent one month at Northward Hill as a residential volunteer, what I thought would be awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping became my everyday norm: birds of prey hunting on the reserve; owls sitting on the washing line; and rabbits playing jovially in the garden every evening.

Knowing little or nothing isn’t a worry as I was taught and most importantly, shown, everything there was to know. From the broad idea of how…

Another week another collection of moths. This week the Robinsons trap was examined around midday on the 24^th July 2019. Having only mothed twice at this reserve I am unsure if the weather has any effect on the current status of moths, however the trap was filled with over 45 different species of moths and the 32 degree peak heat during the day seemed to really wake up the moths in the trap. There was seemingly a whole…