Our History

ASHFORD BIRDWATCHERS CLUB

a brief history by John Bartlett

The Club was formed in 1982 by Malcolm Palmer following a series of adult education classes he held on Birds and Birdwatching at Associate House in Ashford. A few of our members attended these including Stuart Dove and Jean McDermott. Malcolm was a keen and knowledgeable birder and ringer and later went on to run a birdwatching holiday firm (Calandra Holidays) in Spain.

The first meetings of ABWC were in the season of 1982/83 and were held on Mondays. The talks are not listed in the membership card, but the events that year did include a field trip to Sheppey on Saturday 20th November. I certainly remember that early on the annual Nightjar hunt was started and led by Peter Grant. Peter was a renowned expert, author of Gulls: a guide to identification and other publications and was one of the founders and significant contributors of the Collins Bird Guide. He gave one or two talks on bird identification to the Club.

Over the years we have had many excellent speakers with equally good illustrations. They include George Shannon in April 1989 on The Last Wilderness. He was a local dentist who was one of the two main cine-photographers on the famous expedition to the Coto Donana in Spain, and to Jordan, which led to the creation of wildlife reserves in these areas.

Other notable speakers include Dr Richard Chandler, author and expert on shorebirds, David Walker and Gill Hollamby from Dungeness Bird Observatory, John Buckingham leader of many foreign trips, and of course Andrew Lapworth (our current chairman). We have had many memorable well illustrated talks over the years~ too many to list.

Our December indoor meeting has for a long time been our quiz and social evening. Over the years various members have devised and organised some light-hearted brain teaser (usually but not always bird-focused) , including Mike Thickett, Jenny Fairhall, Gill Hollamby, and Heather Silk, with Stuart Dove providing suitably seasonal music and his birds sounds quiz.

We have also enjoyed many field trips. On Sunday October 30th 1983 we had a coach trip to the Somme Estuary and on May 12th 1985 another to Minsmere. On 8th February 1987 we drove two minibuses to Slimbridge, while on November 27th 1988 we had planned a trip to Welney. The weather that day was particularly bad, icy, so instead we went on a twitch to North Kent to see a White-tailed Eagle (a vagrant from Scandinavia).

More recently we have been on many local field trips to Stodmarsh, Oare Marshes, Dungeness, Rye Harbour, Sheppey, Reculver, Cliffe and Hothfield in addition to the annual Nightingale and Nightjar hunts. In June 2016 11 club members spent a week in Barnard Castle in Co Durham, birdwatching and botanising in Upper Teesdale.

There have been three different venues for the Club and some changes in the Club officers. In 1984 Neil Davies became Chairman. In 1988 we moved to the Norton Knatchbull School. I took over as Chairman in 1991. With fees increasing in 1999 we came to the WI Hall in Kennington, Andrew Lapworth our current Chairman having taken over the previous year. The membership has of course changed as people have moved or passed away, but the Club continues to thrive after 35 years.

John Bartlett 9 January 2017