SBBOT: Meetings & Walks
Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory Trust (SBBOT)
Thursday Club
Indoor Meetings for 2009/2010:
Please note that these talks only take place in the winter when we can't be outside enjoying ourselves - they will start again in September when you are more than wlecome to join us for one or all of them
A series of illustrated talks from guest speakers, exploring wildlife near and far. Please feel free to attend all of the talks, just one or a number in between.
This is a relaxed way to take yourself to pastures new on cold winter evenings.
Field Centre opens at 19.00, talks start at 19.30 and end at about 21.30 with a break for refreshments after about one hour.
All welcome, £3.00 per member, £4.00 non-member.
| Date | |
|---|---|
| September | |
| 10th | Peter & Pauline Heathcote - Toucans, Trogons and Tikal |
Peter and Pauline once again open our season of talks with wit, excellent photography and enlightenment. |
|
| 17th | Mike Briggs - Going Dutch |
An account of a visit to the Netherlands by SBBO in January. If you want to gawp at Scaup, see a few Smew, gander at Goosander, or wonder if it’s colder on a polder, this is not to be missed! Mike’s inimitable style of presentation will be accompanied by some excellent photographs by Phil Smith, Mick Vurley and several other SBBO stalwarts who returned full of beans from what was an excellent and successful trip. |
|
| 24th | Brian Gallop - In Search of the Dodo |
A visit to the island of Mauritius. Brain will cover some of the wildlife and birds to be found on this very special island, as well as giving some insight into the place itself. And, yes, there is a slide of the dodo as well! |
|
| October | |
| 1st | Barrie Mason - A Peruvian Panorama |
A chance to accompany Barrie on a four-week trip through some incredibly diverse habitats, from the Nazca Desert to the amazingly rich Ballestas Islands, then on to Arequipa and its condors, before climbing to high altitude and Lake Titicaca. Then, after journeying on to the ancient city of Cuzco and the amazing spectacle of Machu Picchu, across the Andes and by boat to the jungle lodge of Tambopata in the Amazon basin. |
|
| 8th | Don Wilks - Botswana and the Caprivi Strip |
A trip along the Chobi River, alternating between Botswana and Namibia, it includes birds (bee-eaters, hornbills, bulbuls, waxbills and many others), mammals (large and small) and a few reptiles, ending up in Zambia at the Victoria Falls. |
|
| 15th | Algirdas Kynstautas - Indonesia: Birds and Conservation in the World’s largest Archipelago |
| Not the snappiest of titles but Al returns to amuse us with his commentary and brilliant slides. Recently Indonesia has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons: tsunami, earthquake and bombings. How does nature respond to such violations? | |
| 22nd | Chris Ward - Pirates, Pelicans & Potoos |
| A triplooking atthe exciting and varied birdlife of West Mexico, plus some other exotic wildlife too, from the coastal lagoons and mangroves of Barra de Navidad and San Blas to the spectacular Colima volcanoes and thestunning Sierra Madre Occidental. We will see West Mexican endemic birds and North American wintermigrants, from tiny hummingbirds to massive pelicans and raptors. | |
| 29th | Mark Grantham - 100 Years of Bird Ringing |
| 2009 sees the BTO celebrating 100 years of ringing in Britain. Over that time we've learned an incredible amount about our birds, but there is always more to learn. Mark will highlight some of what we know and also look at things we still don't know, and look at some of the extremes of the last 100 years of ringing. | |
| November | |
| 5th | Jo Weightman - Fungi |
| A talk with slides illustrating the diversity of fungi in Kent with special attention to habitat. Jo visited us in October last year and gave us a fascinating insight into this amazing group, many of which can be found at Sandwich Bay or other sites nearby. | |
| 12th | Duncun Armour - Madagascar |
| This talk takes us off to the island of Madagascar, often called"The Eighth Continent", because of the stunning diversity of its' endemic wildlife. We'll explorethe plants, insects, birds and mammals of this remarkable country where evolution turned down a different path some eighty million years ago. | |
| 19th | Brian Summerfield - Birding the Eastern Arc & Selous, Tanzania |
| The Usambaras, The Ulugurus and The Udzungwas are small mountain ranges which comprise the northern Tanzanian component of The Eastern Arc Mountains. Isolated in fertile low-lying farmland they are famed for their high rates of endemism and are sometimes described as “The Galapagos of Africa”. We will also visit the Mikumi Game Reserve which is regarded as a northern extension of the Selous Game Reserve; before travelling south to the Selous itself, a reserve the same size as Switzerland! | |
| 26th | David Pelling - Panama |
| David takes a look at Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge and the nearby birding hotspots, which he’s visited twice, in 2004 & 2006. With good easy paced birding, good birds, good food, good beer, good accommodation and a wealth of wildlife in addition to the avifauna, it is not surprising that this is an increasingly popular destination. | |
| December | |
| 3rd | Eustace Barnes - Bhutan |
Eustace has visited this seldom seen corner of the world on several occasions and will delight us with his reflections, art and photography from this magical land of yetis and pristine forests at the foot of the Himalayas. |
|
| 10th | John Buckingham - Okavango, Etosha & the Skeleton Coast |
| We start our journey in Botswana, following the lush riverine forest and bush along the Chobe River into one of the World's greatest wetlands - the Okavango Delta with its very special animals and birds. On then by great contrast into the neighbouring desert country of Namibia and its amazingly diverse wildlife from the Namib/Naukluft Desert, the dramatic Skeleton Coast with wetlands supporting big numbers of wintering European waders and ending in Etosha, one of Africa's great National Parks. |
