If you’ve been following us from the beginning, you’ll know that our focus is on birds that migrate to north Kent each autumn and spend the winter months on our coast. This is because the designations that protect the Thames Estuary and Marshes, The Medway Estuary and Marshes and The Swale as special protection areas (SPA), are mainly concerned with the over wintering assemblage of birds.
In previous years, our seasonal rangers have been employed between October and April to engage with coastal visitors, and educate them on the importance of allowing birds to feed and rest without disturbance through the winter. Our rangers have always been a familiar and friendly face on the coast between Gravesend and Whitstable during the colder months and we were always sad to say goodbye to them, along with our migratory birds each Spring. Sadly, this left our project manager as the only staff member working through spring and summer which sometimes meant not being able to cover events and activities due to a lack of staff.
This year a decision was made by our project Board to change our ranger’s work pattern to allow us to have staff on site all year round. We hope this allows us to continue delivering messages about bird disturbance during all seasons and that having staff working through the warmer months will enable us to reach more people. This will help to reduce disturbance during the breeding season as our messages about responsible recreation are valid at all times, not just through the winter months.
For those of you that we haven’t met yet, here is a brief introduction to the Bird Wise North Kent team:
Eddie Lovell – Bird Wise Ranger
Ranger Eddie, pictured left, has been busy visiting all of the sites we cover on the north Kent coastline since joining us in August. During his first week with Bird Wise he attended events at the Sheerness Festival of the Sea, a Bio Blitz at Jeskyns Community Woodland and Wild About Capstone.
Eddie works five days per week and recently had a busy week filled with guided walks for the Great Coastal Birdwatch.
Eddie’s favourite coastal bird is the Curlew, because of its stunning sound and also its unique look with that long downcurved bill.
Oare Marshes Reserve near Faversham is his favourite site in north Kent because the variety of habitats on offer mean there is always plenty of wildlife to enjoy.
When Eddie isn’t busy working he plays lead guitar in a band.
Helena Lane – Bird Wise Ranger
Some of you will recognise our ranger Helena as she previously worked for us as a seasonal ranger last winter season. Helena rejoined us in October this year and will be working two days per week for us. When she’s not working for us she works for a marine consultancy so has a very varied work life.
Helena enjoys walking on the coast and is sometimes accompanied by her faithful ranger dog Suki.
Her favourite bird is also the Curlew because although all of our birds are very likeable, the Curlew has a certain elegance about it, and of course that wonderful call.
Whilst it is difficult to choose a favourite site, as our whole coastline is beautiful, Helena’s favourite site is her local patch of Higham and Shorne Marshes. Helena enjoys the mix of industrial landscape with natural marshland and there’s always some fantastic wildlife to see.
Hayley Taylor – Bird Wise Project Manager
Along with Ranger Dog Jasper, Hayley has been with Bird Wise from the beginning in 2017. Whilst the majority of her job is office based, dealing with marketing, strategy and managing our activity, she does like to get out on site whenever possible and admits that birds have become a bit of an obsession over the past five years!
Hayley’s favourite site is Riverside Country Park in Gillingham as that’s also Jasper’s favourite, and despite being our busiest site for people, it has a fantastic range of birds and wildlife there.
When pushed to choose a favourite bird, it has to be the Oystercatcher as they are bright, noisy and entertaining to watch.
This year our team have got off to a great start with the Great Coastal Birdwatch held across north Kent in the October half term and we’ve enjoyed playing our ‘Brent Goose migration game’ with the Isle of Grain Brownie group. We will shortly be hosting weekly ‘pit stop’ events with walks at different locations across our coast with dates and locations published monthly on our website and social media feeds.
In addition to the regular activity on site we are going to be visiting primary schools located close to our coast to talk to pupils about our amazing coastal wildlife. If you are involved with a community group or club on our coast between Gravesend and Whitstable and would like a visit from the Bird Wise team please get in touch with us at birdwise@medway.gov.uk
If you see our team when you are visiting the north Kent coast please do stop and say hello. We love meeting people enjoying our amazing coastline and talking to them about our fantastic wildlife.