Birding the Southern Medway - A New Blog by Tideway Birder Kevin Thornton

Kevin Thornton is a tideway birder covering the Medway Estuary part of the North Kent Marshes, limited to the southern shore. He routinely watches between the head of the Estuary at St. Mary's Island, Chatham, to the Estuary mouth just above Queenborough Spit-some eighteen or so miles as the seawall rat scuttles.

In 2013 Kevin set himself the task to understand the Estuary better, particularly the more common birdlife.

Those of you that already follow Kevin on his excellent Twitter account '@dunnokev' will have enjoyed his interesting pictures of the Estuary and interacting with his regular Tweets.

Kevin regularly posts to his NEW Blog 'Birding the southern Medway'. In his own words Kevin's Blog “is an attempt to piece together some random thoughts on the more common birds found about the Medway Estuary, part of the North Kent Marshes”.

In his latest Blog Post 'Boris Waters' Kevin has written an interesting piece about Seaplane disturbance within the Medway Estuary, which we're sure will be of interest to people living in and around the Ham Green area of the village and to others further afield too.

You can follow Kevin Thornton on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/dunnokev

and read Kevin's Blog at: www.birdingsouthernmedway.blogspot.co.uk

Upchurch Matters

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Rainbow Café at St. Mary’s Church, Upchurch

Gill Gay
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Upchurch Choral Society Presents Fauré's Requiem

St. Mary the Virgin, Upchurch. Picture courtesy of Kim Taylor Photography.

on Good Friday 25th March at 7:00pm

in St. Mary's Church, Upchurch.

Soprano: Sue Rossiter

Baritone: Bryan Veale

Organist: Janet Stone

Conductor: Helen Osborne

Admission FREE

Retiring collection in aid of the Wisdom Hospice.

Helen Osborne
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New Teams Wanted to Join Upchurch Colts FC

Upchurch Colts FC are looking for new teams to join us. Any junior teams looking to join us or start a team please get in touch.

This years under 8s are looking for players for next years under 9s when they change from 5 a side to 7 a side. If we get more players we can keep 2 teams going.

If you are interested please Email: robcroome@sky.com

or Call: 07909 688456.

Thank you.

Rob Croome

Chairman - Upchurch Colts FC

Website: www.upchurchcoltsfc.co.uk

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UpARA's Visit to Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara Gravesend

On a lovely bright winters day at the end of January, a coach full of UpARA members ventured to the extremely impressive Gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) in Gravesend - (if you have ventured to Gravesend by train in the last few years, you cannot fail to have missed it!), and enjoyed a very welcoming and informative few hours.

Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara Gravesend.

Apart from taking in the scale of the temple and the vast site that it sits on, the group were given a very warm introduction by the guides who made everyone feel so welcome during the extensive tours and provided a very nice vegetarian lunch to everyone.

It was very enlightening, and everyone seemed to appreciate a further understanding of the Sikh faith and also some Sikh trivia ,(Did you know that Singh means 'Lion', and is the last name given to every Sikh man, and that Kaur means 'Princess', and is the last name given to every Sikh woman?).

Members now look forward to the next trip to the Kew Gardens Orchid Festival at the end of February.

Website: www.gurunanakdarbar.org

Spoof Scoop

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Upchurch Twinning Group Annual Quiz Night - Amount Raised and Thank You

Upchurch is twinned with Ferques-Elinghen in Pas de Calais, France.

One of the pleasures of being Honorary Secretary is to tell you that this years Annual Quiz Night was a great success. 104 people turned up and as they all dug deep into their pockets (or purses) we have a profit of £640.00 to show for a nights work.

Our grateful thanks, I know, go to our volunteer team. Without them and all the hard work they put in both on the day and on many, many days and nights before, over the last few months we would not have had a Quiz Night.

We also had our usual raffle. Thanks to Ray Kemsley for organising and running it and thanks to all the people who donated prizes - over 33 of them. We only paid for one prize - and we are certain that was at a lot less than cost! Thanks to Terry and Tina from the Upchurch Greengrocers Shop.

In conclusion, it just remains to say “Thank you” to everyone who turned out to support us on a wet and windy night.  

All proceeds go towards years 5 & 6 Holywell children visiting either Elinghen or Ferques schools.

Read more about Upchurch Twinning Group: here

Ann Harman

Honorary Secretary - Upchurch Twinning Group

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