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 Lecture Programme
Live at the Field Centre at 7.30pm
£6 per person including a hot drink and a biscuit - payable at the door on the night (payments by credit/debit cards now available).
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Each year we book a wide range of speakers and subjects and although most talks are mainly about birds, there are other wildlife subjects included, such as talks on Dragonflies and Flowers etc.
Our talk programme also covers lots of different countries as well as more local topics.
(Volunteer request - we do need some people to help out again with the teas/coffees and car parking on each evening. Therefore, if you are able to help at either of the first couple of talks, then please email the talks organiser Ian Searle Once we are up running, Ian will be putting the volunteer sheet on the notice board for people to add their names too, the same as last year - thank you.)
Our Autumn 2026 programme started on 17th September 2026
See details below!
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Wild Estonia
by Wilf Powell
7.30 - 9.00 15th October 2026
Wilf Powell is a retired research entomologist and former Chair of the Bedfordshire Natural History Society. His main hobby is travelling to see and photograph wildlife.
Wilf's talk describes a range of wildlife seen in Estonia based on seven trips to the country, including visits during the autumn bird migration when tens of thousands of Arctic and Scandinavian birds using the East Atlantic flyway pass along the coast. Wilf has also led butterfly and dragonfly tours in Estonia. The talk will describe important wildlife sites around the country and highlight the exceptional diversity of its fauna and flora.
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The Cross-channel Geopark - An Aspiring UNESCO Cross-channel Global Geopark
by Greg Taylor, National Landscape Manager, Kent Downs National Landscape
7.30 - 9.00 22nd October 2026
The Cross-Channel Geopark unites the protected landscapes of the Kent Downs and 'les Caps et Marais d'Opale', telling the extraordinary story of the shared geological heritage of this cross-Channel region and how it has shaped everything about the place today.
Greg Taylor is the UK Coordinator of the Cross-Channel Geopark and will talk about the project and the journey towards UNESCO Global Geopark status, as well as some of the incredible stories of this area from hundreds of millions of years ago to the present day.
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Chasing All the Bird Families of the World
by Peter Eerdmans
7.30 - 9.00 29th October 2026
Peter Eerdmans will take us on a whirlwind tour of his global birding trips, starting in his early teens in the Netherlands, which then expanded across six continents over the following decades. He will be focusing on all the amazing bird families he has seen along the way.
This has now become a quest to see all 250 bird families of the world.
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Remote Sulawesi
by Barry Wright, Kent County Bird Recorder
7.30 - 9.00 5th November 2026
A month's long birding endurance across the more remote islands of Sulawesi. Planes, pains and water mobiles, capped off with rice, fish heads and camping with wonderful local people - in a quest to see little known species of bird whatever the hardships of life. 'He who dares grins'
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'Pole Position' in Protecting and Presenting Wildlife
by Marek Borkowski
7.30 - 9.00 12th November 2026
Poland, from the privileged perspective of a naturalist living permanently amongst its protected species. How such a working life helps one get stunning views of difficult or rare species and about the techniques for finding and watching them. Birds from spotted eagles to aquatic warblers; bears, lynx, elk, bison and more are all included in this fascinating talk.
Birds from eagles to Aquatic Warblers, bears, lynx, elk etc are all included in this fascinating talk.
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Nightingales and Turtle Doves: Managing a Disused Apple Orchard in Kent for Nature
by Keith & Jenny Dugmore
7.30 - 9.00 19th November 2026
©John Buckingham
After buying 50 acres of disused orchard near Chartham in 2017, in order to save its nightingales, SBBOT member Keith Dugmore and his wife Jenny realised that there were also turtle doves nesting there.
2021 ©John Buckingham
The land, planted as an orchard in the 1980s, had not been maintained since 2000, so ‘rewilding’ had a head start. With help from experts, grants from conservation bodies, annual surveys of breeding birds, and extensive pond creation managed by Kent Wildlife Trust, the site has proved a magnet for birds and other wildlife.
The next step is for KWT to introduce grazing animals.
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Birds in History, Myth & Folklore
by John Cantelo
7.30 - 9.00 26th November 2026
John’s twin lifelong passions have been birds and history. Both come together in his interest in the role of birds in our history and how we have used myths and folklore to express moral and ethical ideas … or just tell good stories. It’s a lot of fun to explore past ideas and beliefs about the natural world in general and birds in particular!
His talk will illuminate some of these ideas, where they come from, why they persist into a more supposedly rational age and what they tell us about our changing relationship with the natural world.
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Special Members Evening
with multiple speakers each giving short talks with photos and stories of their experiences of the natural world
7.30 - 9.00 3rd December 2026
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Morocco - An EasyJet Flight Away from Tchagras, Babblers and Bulbuls
by Brendan Ryan
7.30 - 9.00 10th December 2026
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Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory Trust Review of 2026
by our wardens
7.30 - 9.00 17th December 2026
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2027
A Season Being a Warden on Lundy
by Greg Lee (ex Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory assistant warden)
7.30 - 9.00 7th January 2027
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The Jack Snipe - Britain's Least Understood Bird
by Jolene Orlowski & Kevin Clements
7.30 - 9.00 14th January 2027
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Managing Stodmarsh NNR
by Stefan Barton (Stodmarsh Warden)
7.30 - 9.00 21st January 2027
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An Experience in Honduras
by Evan Davies (2026 SBBOT intern)
7.30 - 9.00 28th January 2027
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The Non-native Species Inspectorate: Who We Are and What We Do
by Zoe Golding, (Senior non-native species inspector at the Animal and Plant Health Authority)
7.30 - 9.00 4th February 2027
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Revisiting Tanzania
by Brian Summerfield
7.30 - 9.00 11th February 2027
In part 2 of Brian’s return visit to this amazing country, he will discuss the species seen in the Olduvei Gorge, Ndutu and the famous Serengeti areas.
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Tulips and Other Spring Flowers of the Tien Shan Mountains, Kazakhstan
by Sue Buckingham
7.30 - 9.00 18th February 2027
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Pan-species Listing - How to Become a Super Naturalist
by Graeme Lyons (Ecologist & Author)
7.30 - 9.00 25th February 2027
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The Wilderness of Alaska
by Rob Rackliffe
7.30 - 9.00 4th March 2027
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Birding in the Cloud Forests of Ecuador - and a Quick Visit to the Amazon
by Ken Chapman
7.30 - 9.00 11th March 2027
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Butterflies of Kent
by Clive Nuttman
The appearance of these colourful insects is always a welcome sign of the approaching summer. Kent has a wide variety of the 60 or so butterfly species native to Britain.
7.30 - 9.00 18th March 2027
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