SBBOT has a long tradition of offering courses, lectures and talks. Apart from the presentations below we also present evening programmes via zoom, such as our Wednesday Courses.

Thursday Evening Winter & Spring Lecture Programme

Live at the Field Centre at 7.30pm

£5 per person including a hot drink and a biscuit - payable at the door on the night.

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6th February - Bitterns at Stodmarsh – me and my obsession               

David Lodge and Birty

David has lived in Stodmarsh or Wickhambreaux for 70 + years and from a very early age had always appreciated what happens in the natural world. He remembers his father calling him out in the garden one spring evening and saying that foghorn sound is a bittern booming probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

At the time it didn’t seem that important and he didn’t realise what an obsession they would become in later years to him.

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13th February - South Africa: food, wine and some sport and lots of birds. Birding on family holidays and without getting divorced   

Brendan Ryan 

South Africa is a wonderful country with great food & wine, stunning scenery and some spectacular birds and animals. Brendan describes four trips he has made to the country in which he has combined targeted birding with the requirements of family holidays.

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20th February - White Stork Project: Reconnecting with a wilder Britain

Laura Vaughan-Hirsch, White Stork Project Manager, Knepp Wildland Foundation

The talk will cover the methods used to reintroduce storks at Knepp as well as their partner sites, the ecology of the birds and the lessons they have learnt about their behaviour, breeding and migration. Laura will also cover the community engagement that the project has been working on and aims to achieve in the future.

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27th February - The Return of the White-tailed Sea Eagle to Southern England   

Zoe Smith, Roy Dennis Foundation

Prior to being reintroduced, the White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla had been absent as a resident breeding bird in England for over 240 years. Like many birds of prey, the White-tailed Eagle suffered relentless persecution from the Middle Ages onwards. The last known pair in southern England bred on Culver Cliff in 1780 on the Isle of Wight.

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6th March - Birds of Greece and its Islands  (Themed evening with wine and cheese etc.)

From the snow-capped Pindos mountains of Northwest Greece we travel East past bird-rich forests, lakes and marshes as far Alexandroupolis sitting close to the Turkish border. From here we overlook the Evros Delta, which divides these two countries and was once one of Europe’s richest wetland sites.

SBBOT GREECE & ITS ISLANDS

Greece is famous for its many islands sitting around the sparkling Aegean. Five of these are featured in John’s talk. Springtime migrants move north along the coast of Turkey in huge numbers where we have an exciting time birding in Lesvos, Samos, Kos and Rhodes. Finally our visit to Crete, the Country’s largest island enables us to enjoy deep gorges and fabulous mountain views, carpets of wild-flowers and encounters with more of  Eastern Europe’s bird specialities.

Click below to buy tickets here:

John Buckingham  

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13th March - Bermuda and its birdlife

Andrew Dobson

Andrew will explain how an isolated island of only 21 square miles and with 20 breeding species can have recorded 400 bird species.

The reasons for the relatively large number of species will be discussed, including Bermuda’s isolation from other land areas, its situation in relation to the Gulf Stream, migration routes and weather patterns experienced in the autumn months. Andrew will highlight the remarkable story of the Bermuda Petrel or Cahow – a great conservation success

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20th March - Class of Autumn 2023 - Wardening at Spurn Bird Observatory 

Jonathan Dodds

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27th March - British Amphibians and Reptiles  

Their lives and distribution, including a close look at the development of the Common Frog from egg to adult.

Ian Rumley-Dawson

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3rd April - Winter birding in the land of the rising sun (Japan) part 1   

Ken Chapman and Ian Searle

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10th April -  Sharing thin air: birds, herds, and people of Dhaula canyon in the Himalayas of western Nepal      

Joy Stephens     

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