Wild about you!

Join other local residents and the RSPB for a monthly wildlife adventure at Northward Hill, getting hands-on with nature whilst enjoying the fantastic local landscape.

As well as these monthly sessions, I highly recommend a visit to RSPB Northward Hill. Fresh air, great views, stunning nature and plenty of exercise (if you want it).

Take a look at the RSPB Northward Hill website by clicking here.

I’ve previously mentioned some of my visits to this beautiful part of the Hoo Peninsula, take a look by clicking here.

  

Village Voices for Hoo and Chattenden (Issue 46)

The latest edition of Village Voices for Hoo and Chattenden is now available online. Click the image below, which will take you to the editions page on the Village Voices website - then click ‘Issue 46’.

This edition includes an article written by Hoo Parish Councillor Noreen Chambers about The Medway Queen, a selection of photos from the recent RSPB Wildlife and Countryside Fair at Bromhey Farm, an appeal from Hoo and Chattenden Youth Clubs for volunteers and a piece about Hoo Brownies making their new Promise.

Village Voices - the community magazine for Hoo and Chattenden. “Your Village, Your Voice - since 2006”.

Take a look at the Village Voices website by clicking here.

Let’s keep it local - let’s support our excellent community mags!
  

Wildlife and Countryside Fair at RSPB Northward Hill (8 September 2013)

It’s almost that time of the year again - when the RSPB hold their annual Wildlife and Countryside Fair. And the fun event is held right here on the Hoo Peninsula.

Always very well supported by local people, the free event will take place on Sunday 8 September.

I hope to see you there!

  

Village Voices (June 2013 Edition)

The June edition of Village Voices is now available to read online. This is the community magazine for Hoo and Chattenden. Just click the image below, which will take you to the 'editions' page of the Village Voices website - then click the June edition.

This edition includes promotion of the coming Cabaret Night being held at Taggs Coffee Shop and Wine Bar on Thursday 20 June (in aid of the Hoo Village Carnival Committee), a history of Lodge Hill (from a development perspective) by Parish Councillor Lionel Pearce, a very interesting article about ‘identity’ by Rolf Williams from the RSPB and much much more!

Take a look at the Village Voices website by clicking here.

  

The Hoo Peninsula is open for business!

With half term approaching, I’d like to encourage you to visit the Hoo Peninsula - a fantastic landscape offering wilderness and heritage.

It stretches from Cliffe (or thereabouts) in the west to the Isle of Grain in the east. Our villages include Upnor, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods, Cooling, Hoo St. Werburgh, High Halstow, St. Mary Hoo, Stoke, Allhallows and the Isle of Grain.

We have a fabulous, and in my view unrivalled, network of dramatic walking routes, marshland, wildlife, heritage, farmland and vibrant communities. There are many local shops and businesses, including a super selection of pubs, cafes and restaurants and we are never short of fetes and community events.

We are very proud to be the home of RSPB Cliffe Pools Nature Reserve, Upnor Castle, RSPB Northwood Hill Nature Reserve, Grain Coastal Park, St. James’ Church at Cooling (made famous by Charles Dickens), Deangate Ridge Golf Club near Hoo, Medway Microlights at Stoke Airfield and Port Werburgh in Hoo (just some of our attractions).

If you’ve never been - please come and see us and enjoy the great outdoors right on your doorstep. You’ll have a great time!

Take a look at Medway Council’s website for more information about local activities, search the Hoo Peninsula on the internet or browse this site.

We are open for business and ready to welcome you!

  

Battle of the songsters!

It was good to catch up with Rolf Williams from the RSPB earlier today in Hoo for a coffee at Taggs Coffee Shop, promoting the coming North Kent Walking Festival.

Click here to take a look at the walking festival guide I posted on Sunday.

Following the information I was given by the RSPB at the weekend (Going for a song - Nightingales in North Kent), I thought you might also like to hear two singing Nightingales competing with each other at RSPB Northward Hill. This was recorded by Rolf recently.

Enjoy listening to the Nightingales on the video below.

Thanks Rolf for sharing this!
 

Going for a song - Nightingales in North Kent

With half term fast approaching, I thought I’d share some information supplied by the RSPB about events taking place at Northward Hill:

Nightingales are back for the summer on the Hoo Peninsula, probably the most important site in the UK for this species, and now is the best time to hear their song. To celebrate their return the RSPB is hosting a series of guided walks at some of the best places to hear and perhaps see these shy birds.

Nightingale photo by John Whitting.

Alan Johnson, Kent’s RSPB reserves manager said, “Now is the time because once the male has found his mate he falls silent. I never tire from hearing the nightingale’s song and we’d like to give everyone else the opportunity. Despite the bird’s popular appeal many have never heard one singing and the birds are disappearing from our countryside fast!”

British Trust for Ornithology research has revealed that the UK‘s nightingale population halved between 1995 and 2008 and their distribution is retreating towards the southeast of England. The Hoo Peninsula is now, probably, the most important area for the species in the country. Well over 1% of the national population nests at Lodge Hill and there are healthy populations at RSPB Cliffe Pools and Northward Hill, Chattenden Woods and Blean Woods.

The nightingale, a charismatic avian lyricist, litters our literature as far back as the 8th century BC. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Shelley and Keats couldn’t resist writing about nightingales, and the alleged songster of Berkeley Square has itself been sung about by Vera Lynn, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and even Twiggy and Rod Stewart! Many people confuse song thrushes, robins and blackbirds for nightingales since these birds will sing by the light of a street lamp but the real thing is unmistakable.

A choice of guided walks are available to the public over the next few weeks and full details can be found on the RSPB website here, or by clicking here. You can also phone the RSPB office on 01634 222480.

Sunday 19 May, from 10am to 12pm
RSPB Northward Hill “Wild About You” Bird Ringing 

Tuesday 28 May, from 7am to 9am
Great Chattenden Woods “North Kent Walking Festival” Walk* 

Wednesday 29 May, from 6am to 8pm
RSPB Northward Hill “Spring Strings” North Kent Walking Festival Walk and cello* 

Sunday 9 June, from 10am to 12 noon

RSPB Northward Hill “Wild About You” Bird Ringing

*A donation is appreciated, all other walks have a fee. 

RSPB Northward Hill is well worth a visit, so please try and pop along to one of these events!

  

Village Voices (April 2013 Edition)

The April edition of Village Voices (the community magazine for Hoo St. Werburgh and Chattenden) is now available to read online. Just click the image below to see the full copy.

This edition includes an update on the Lodge Hill development at Chattenden, information about a new children’s play area in Hoo, a fascinating article by Rolf Williams from the RSPB, a Hoo Clean Up photo-special and lots of other interesting features and local advertising.

Take a look at the Village Voices website by clicking here.

  

No surrender, no Thames Estuary airport!

It's been a while since I added anything on here about opposing the ludicrous idea of constructing an airport in the Thames Estuary. But that doesn't mean the issue has gone away, sadly. Far from it!

I thought I'd include my most recent ‘Stop Estuary Airport’ photo-wall produced last year, to highlight the parliamentary petition currently being organised by the MP for Rochester and Strood, Mark Reckless. Mark represents all of the communities on the Hoo Peninsula - from Cliffe to the Isle of Grain.

You can show your support for opposing a Thames Estuary airport, and for Mark's petition, by completing the online petition form on his website. Just click here to get involved.

If you’re concerned about the possible destruction of the Hoo Peninsula, please make every effort to get your voice heard! Tell all your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues about the petition - let's send the message, loud and clear, that there'll be 'no surrender' from the people of the Hoo Peninsula!

Stay in touch with the Stop Estuary Airport campaign by visiting Medway Council's dedicated website. Another excellent resource is the site run by the Friends of the North Kent Marches, click here to visit.

Step up and save the peninsula from destruction!

  

Wild about you!

Join the RSPB for a monthly wildlife adventure at Northward Hill, getting hands-on with nature whilst enjoying our fantastic local landscape.

Click the image below to find out more.

Aside from these monthly sessions, I highly recommend a visit to RSPB Northward Hill. Fresh air, great views, stunning nature and plenty of exercise (if you want it).

Take a look at the RSPB Northward Hill website by clicking here.

I’ve previously mentioned some of my visits to this beautiful part of the peninsula, take a look by clicking here.

  

Village Voices (February 2013 Edition)

The February edition of Village Voices (the community magazine for Hoo St. Werburgh and Chattenden), is now available to read online. Just click the image below to read the full copy.

This edition includes an interesting ‘questions and answers’ piece with Inspector David Matson from Kent Police, details of the next Hoo Clean Up (the next one being on Saturday 23 February), a fascinating article by Rolf Williams from the RSPB, a report from Hoo resident Holly Matthews about her trip to Zimbabwe and many other interesting items and local advertising.

Take a look at the Village Voices website by clicking here.
  

Theatre at RSPB Northward Hill - don’t miss out!

Making a welcome return to RSPB Northward Hill tomorrow evening (Wednesday 13 June) will be The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company - with their comic mystery production of ‘Who Saw Marjory Daw’.

Set in the 1960s, the production is full of flower-power, free love, fashion and revolution. Following the character of Agnes Church as she leaves university and becomes a trainee journalist, the story concerns the disappearance of a young hippy - set against a backdrop of power politics and the Vietnam war.

To find out more about what will be happening tomorrow night, or to book tickets, click here. Find out more about RSPB Northward Hill by clicking here.

Dress for the weather, although forecasters are predicting a dry and sunny day tomorrow (don’t hold me to that!!)

  

Olympic Tern at RSPB Cliffe Pools

Supplied by the RSPB:

As London prepares to receive visitors from across the globe for the 2012 Olympics, RSPB Cliffe Pools expects to welcome back its very own athlete of Olympic proportions. The nature reserve is an important home to wintering wildfowl and waders but also a summer breeding ground for migratory birds such as the common tern.

This sleek seabird of pure white, with a blood-red bill, black crest and swallow tail, has nested on the islands created by the flooding of the old cement works since they closed in 1970. As the world looked forward to the Seoul Olympics, back in July 1987, Roger Kiddie, a science and math teacher from Gravesend, rowed out to the tern colony at Cliffe Pools with Cliff Sharr, a local villager and renowned ornithologist on the north Kent marshes. The men spent the afternoon ringing the common tern chicks under a relentless attack from the adults. Common terns defend their nests aggressively, attacking more furiously those they recognise as repeat offenders. The chicks leave the nest almost immediately after hatching, so time was against the men.

Common tern at RSPB Cliffe Pools by Les Foster (website) 

Roger said, “Common terns spend their winter off the west coast of Africa, indeed, most of their life is spent at sea, so the chances of recapturing a ringed tern is always slight; but in the 1980’s ringing still presented the best opportunity for us to learn where these birds migrate to. We now know that common terns return each year to the colony from which they hatched, for Cliffe Pools that means an annual round trip of about 10,000 miles.”

The average lifespan of a common tern is 12 years so they rack-up a lot of sea miles, ably assisted by the Trade Winds and the unusual ability to replace worn-out flight feathers twice in a year.

In December 2011, a fisherman from Guinea Bissau, on the west coast of Africa, found a tern on his decks with an injured leg. Terns are known as sea swallows, their graceful appearance and dainty build affords them a different respect than the raucous gulls. The fisherman attended to the bird and returned it to the ocean in good health, but not before noting the details of a ring on its other leg. From this information, just received by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), we know that this tern was one of those chicks ringed by Cliff and Roger 25 years ago.

Roger has since retired, but continues to ring birds for the BTO. In the tern’s lifetime the Olympics have been to Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, and with a little more luck, it is now wheeling around the Thames Estuary looking down onto the London Olympics. In its own feat of Olympic proportions this little bird (equal in weight to a tin of sardines and with a wingspan of just one human arm’s length), has now flown the same distance as from the Earth to the Moon!

Roger Kiddie said, “This has to be one of the highlights of my 40 years bird ringing experience, it is truly remarkable.”

Visit the RSPB Cliffe Pools website by clicking here.

  

Stop the Thames Estuary Airport!

The campaign to prevent our area being destroyed by a Thames Estuary Airport has really taken off!

Medway Council, the RSPB and Friends of the North Kent Marshes continue to work hard, and in partnership with local residents, to prevent this catastrophe from happening.

My Photo Wall - a work in progress!

Although the media hype has calmed down in recent weeks, local residents are being encouraged to ‘keep up the pressure’ and maintain the campaign momentum.

That's why it is great to see more and more residents and businesses across the Hoo Peninsula displaying posters, leaflets and car stickers.

The dedicated Stop Estuary Airport campaign website, run by Medway Council, provides detailed information about where you can pick up leaflets, posters and car stickers. It also explains how you can get involved in the campaign.

As well as the Medway Council site, it’s also worth taking a look at the website run by the Friends of the North Kent Marshes by clicking here. The RSPB website also has an interesting section about the Estuary Airport proposals, with lots of useful and detailed analysis and information.

Step up, get up and together let’s Stop the Thames Estuary Airport from becoming a reality.
  

News of Thames Estuary Airport proposals reach Switzerland

An unexpected package landed on my doormat yesterday, post marked Zurich. As I don’t know anyone in Switzerland, I wondered what on earth it could be!

It was from an organisation called SVS / BirdLife Switzerland and contained the latest edition of their magazine ‘Ornis’ - which reminded me of a request a couple of months ago from them to use one of the pictures from this website.

I don’t claim to be anything other than a keen amateur when it comes to photography, but it was nice to see one of my snaps actually published in a magazine. The image they selected shows a view of Hoo Flats, as seen from the Saxon Shore Way along the River Medway. The photo appears as part of an article about the Thames Estuary Airport proposals. Not speaking very good German, I’m afraid I can’t tell you ‘exactly’ what the article says.

Lots of interest in our little corner of the world. But not really a great surprise given that parts of our local area are internationally important to wildlife.

If you want to know more about why our local landscape is so important, visit the dedicated pages on the RSPB website here.

  

No Estuary Airport - the community delivers!

The last couple of weeks have been busy, with local residents across the Hoo Peninsula getting involved and delivering thousands of Medway Council and RSPB ‘anti airport’ campaign leaflets. And we haven’t stopped delivering yet - there are still more to do!

I’ve been out delivering with a team of residents from Hoo. We have nearly completed deliveries in the village - the largest settlement on the peninsula. 

We were given a morale boost at the beginning of the month when Mayor of Medway, Councillor Ted Baker, visited the village. The Mayor attended a meeting of the Parish Council and met with its representatives and members of the local community. He was happy to show his support for the campaign objecting to an airport being built in the Thames Estuary.

If you would like to find out more about Medway Council’s campaign, visit their dedicated website by clicking here.

  

Join the RSPB for a Guided Walk (Hoo’s Herons), Sunday 11 March 2012

One hundred pairs of grey herons, and another hundred little egrets, are nesting at the RSPB Northward Hill Nature Reserve.

They are the first to kick-off the spring at the heronry and this is the best time of year to observe them - before the trees go into leaf.

Join the RSPB for a guided walk to view the birds and learn more about how the team monitors the health of the wildlife, whilst considering the impact of climate change.

When the walk arrives at the heronry viewpoint, a nice hot cuppa will be available and staff and volunteers will talk more about heron life - even offering a few historic heron themed recitals too!

Photograph taken by Simon Ginnaw (RSPB).

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for the walk by getting in touch with the RSPB on 01634 222480 (between 9am and 5pm) or send an email here.

Booking is essential - tickets are £6 for adults and £5 for children. RSPB members receive a discount of £2. And if you decided to become a member of the RSPB on the day - you'll receive a full refund.

The walk will start at 10am (on Sunday 11 March) from the main car park at Bromhey Farm (RSPB Northward Hill Nature Reserve, Bromhey Farm, Lipwell Hill, Cooling, ME3 8DS). The walk is expected to take a couple of hours to complete.
  

RSPB ‘stepping up’ to say No Estuary Airport!

Leaflets are being delivered across the Hoo Peninsula, calling on local residents to oppose the idea of building one of the largest airports in the world - right here in the Thames Estuary.

A leaflet produced by the RSPB asks residents to go online and take ‘e-action’ by emailing the government to object to the proposals.

As everyone involved in previous campaigns knows, a scheme like this would destroy our cherished and much loved natural environment - a spectacular wetland of global importance! 

If you’d like to ‘step up’ and get involved, just click here.

  

No Estuary Airport!

Over the last couple of months there has been growing speculation and debate about the possible building of an airport in our area. As most people will know, there are two main proposals. One being an island airport in the estuary and the other a scheme on the Isle of Grain.

The RSPB are highlighting the threats to our much cherished wildlife and have been recording the views of local residents - posting them on their website as part of an audio feature (podcast) on the issues surrounding these proposals. Click here to have a listen.

Rolf Williams from the RSPB

If you’re interested in reading more about the negative impact these devastating airport ideas would have on our local landscape and wildlife, or to get involved in the RSPB ‘No Estuary Airport’ campaign, their website is one of the best places to go. Just click here to find out more.

You might also like to take a look at ‘No Estuary Airport’ website run by the Friends of North Kent Marshes, just click here.

Medway Council’s ‘No Estuary Airport’ website can be visited by clicking here.
 

Walking in the footsteps of Charles Dickens!

I met up for a coffee and a chat earlier today with Rolf Williams from the RSPB.

He told me all about a special walk taking place at the RSPB Northward Hill nature reserve on Thursday 2 February - in celebration of Charles Dickens and his association with the peninsula.

In the week that we'll be celebrating Dickens’ 200th birthday, the RSPB is offering unique access to a part of the marsh at Northward Hill that is normally closed to the public.

The walk will be a 3 mile round trip, taking in the heart of the grazing marsh that was the inspiration for the opening scenes of ‘Great Expectations’.

There will be a chance to look at local wildlife habitats and some interesting buildings, and I know Rolf and his team will be able to give insights into the natural history of the area along the way.

Rolf has told me those taking part might be lucky enough to see marsh harrier, lapwing, buzzard (possibly the rare rough-legged buzzard) and Northward Hill’s iconic grey heron.

This walk seems a great opportunity to learn more about the story of the Thames marshes and the complex mix of nature and human intervention spanning thousands of years.

So it won't just provide information about the wildlife, as there will be recitals marking different periods of the area’s past, present . . . and future!

The walk will start at 10am at the main car park at Bromhey Farm. Too early? All for those who prefer their fresh air in the afternoon, the walk will be repeated at 1pm.

Please don’t forget to wear stout footwear, preferably wellies or walking boots. And wrap up warmly, as it can get very windy out on the marsh even if it seems generally mild.

So, what are you waiting for?

Sign up by contacting Rolf and the RSPB team by ringing 01634 222480 or send an email here.

Please note: The ticket price for this event will be £6 for adults and £5 for children. RSPB members receive the discounted rate of £2. Anyone who decide to join the RSPB on the day will receive a full refund.