The founder of Democracy

The church at Northborne has a long history and there has probably been a church on this site since the seventh century. In AD 618 the newly crowned King Edbald of Kent, gave land at Northbourne St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.

An Anglo-Saxon church was built on the site and in about 1120 this was modernised in the late Norman style, although fragments of the the original church have been identified in the walls of the present church.

The porch conceals a fine Norman door and the tower was built as a village refuge, a tradition that started in the reign of Alfred the Great, when the towers were built as village fortresses against the attacks of the Danes.

The Lady Chapel contains the Sandy. Memorial and family vault. The memorial was built in the lifetime of Sir Edwin Sandys and his wife and was sculpted from life. The couple are shown lying in their four' poster' bed.

Sir Edwin was MP for Sandwich during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and lived at Northbourne Court. He believed in free Parliament elected by universal suffrage, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for his views,. He became treasurer of the Virginia Company and obtained the Royal Assent from James I for a Constitution for the Company that be drew up. This resulted in the first freely elected government in the world, in Virginia. Sir Edwin's constitution later became the pattern for the Constitution of the United States of America, when the Thirteen Colonies obtained their independence.


A tablet on the west wall of the chapel was set there by the American and British Commonwealth Association

The large organ, just over 100 years old, is now in front of the two most attractive windows in the Church. I was fortunate enough to me the church warden who showed me the windows from the back of the organ, where a spiral staircase has been built to access the belfry.

More facts and history of the Church can be found at a site based on the work 0f Arthur Peel.

I haven't yet found any thing about the origin of these two windows. Unfortunately the pamphlet that they sell about the church had been sold out and is currently waiting for a new edition to be written. As I Left the church I was greeted by a very tuneful Blackcap singing just out side.

It was good to see several bumble bees in the garden. As usual I find it difficult to be certain of the species, either White-tailed, lucorum, or Buff-tailed, terresris.

A couple of new birds for the year in the garden in the last couple of days. Yesterday I was surprised to see a pair of Yellowhammers by the pond, and today a Chiffchaff came down to drink in the same place.

A cautionary tale for birders, take care when you carry telescopes and binoculars!

Back on line

After a day and a half with no access to the WEB or e-mail, I'm back on line. The problem seems to have been with a server somewhere but I don't know how many people were affected. It's when you haven't got it that you realise how often you use it! Bird Guides, the Weather, BBC Sports etc etc. So not post yesterday.

The night of Tuesday/Wednesday was wild and windy and "Scar-face" turned up at about 10.30 and quickly demolished his peanuts. Looking well healed I think you can see two puncture marks on the side of his nose. Whether they were caused by teeth or claws I'm not sure.

Over night the wind gathered pace and by mid-day was getting up to a force eight and perhaps even higher out a sea. Down in the Bay the waves were breaking over the railings and throwing up large amounts of shingle.

The spray was sufficient of me not to get too close with the camera. sea water not being very sympathetic to photographic gear, but even from a distance the power of the sea looked pretty awesome.

The Spring tide was pretty high and I think it is the first time that I've seen waves come over the walls at Dover Harbour. The swell in the harbour was sufficient to have the waves breaking over the beach and onto Marine Parade. From Dover I went on to Samphire Hoe where I shared a pleasant half hour chatting over a cup of tea. Finally we made it out into the wild weather and were treated to a pair of Black Redstarts and a cracking male Ring Ouzel that flew up and disappeared into a large bramble bush half way up the Cliff.

"Pretty" face came first last night. It's not difficult to work out that after all the rain "snouting" out worms had been on the agenda before arriving at the peanuts.

While I was looking round the lawn this afternoon, find evidence of Badger feeding, and cursing how fast it was growing since I cut it last week, I was joined by " Donald and Daphne" from the village pond. They seemed to fing the freshly grown grass to their taste but I don't think the two of them cam manage to graze the whole lawn for me.

Bye Bye to Not Quite Scilly and North Downs and Beyond

A poor day for both mothing (only three Hebrew Characters and an actinic tube that seems to have given up the ghost) and birding, still no Wheatears and definitely no Alpine or Pallid Swifts ahead of the front that came through.

Looking through the pictures I took of the Kittiwakes at Langdon, I noticed that I also took some of this Fulmar on the cliff. I hope that this was just a place to rest and not where it intended to lay it's eggs. It really doesn't look as if one would last there at all.

I just liked this one, Fulmars are such great subjects.

I was disappointed to see that two regular Bloggers about birds and Natural History had decided to call it a day. Steve Gale has packed up his "North Downs and Beyond" and removed it completely and Gavin Haig, has called a halt to "Not quite Scilly" although he is leaving existing posts in place. This is a shame because both were well written and often interesting subjects. It is totally understandable though. It takes time and at times trying to find the right words and pictures can be a painful procedure. I hope that at some time we will see these two bloggers back, but we should be thankful for their contributions over the last couple of years. This is my 1122 post so I suppose it isn't surprising that I find that I'm repeating myself at times. Looking at my list of Kent Bloggers about birds I notice several that haven't posted for two months or more. I think we are seeing the birth of a new syndrome, the blogger fatigue syndrome.

Cliffs with knobs on!

A walk along the cliffs not far from Dover was sandwiched between the early fog, that kept the fog horns from the channel shipping noisy all morning and the promised rain that arrived mid afternoon provided some fine birding.

There are few more exciting bird than the Peregrine and the fact that they can now be seen regularly over much of Britain, even nesting in the centre of several large towns and cities. I watched this bird for some time and it kept more or less in this pose all the time I was watching.

I think I hard a distant call, and this was likely as soon after the sitting bird was away, dashing from it's perch and disappearing to the south.

Further on I could see some activity on the top of the cliff. At first glance t was two close having a "dance", a closer look showed it to be a Carrion Crow trying to irritate the much larger Raven. It is always good the see a passing Raven in the area, and they haven't been around as much this year as last.

Whether it was me getting closer or the attention that it was getting from the Crow the Raven took off and circled over the see, it's deep honking call ringing out over the sea.

It landed a hundred yards on so further along the cliff and I circled round to try and get close before I appeared over the top of the cliff and flushed the bird. By sneaking up slowly I got some good views, even though the fact that I was near the edge of a cliff made me feel distinctly uncomfortable.

Back at Fan Bay I walked to the lowest point and got some views of a few Kittiwakes perched on the small out crops. It is hard to believe that these tiny platforms give these beautiful Gulls enough space to breed. Listening to the calls of Kittiwakes, on a breeding cliff, is one of the great sounds in nature. Here we have just a few pairs but in some of the large colonies in the Scottish islands the noise is deafening. How long this will be so is worrying as the breeding numbers have fallen by 40% since the year 2000.

Zit Zit Zit Zit

Today was a red letter day, not because I got a lifer or a UK tick or even a Kent tick, but a Bockhill tick that wipes away the memory of a nasty dip on 25th August 2006, when I missed one by a couple of minutes in almost the same place. This time, thanks to the generously prompt phone call from Jack I was lucky enough to see the bird before it left. Jack Chantler is the best example I know of someone who finds good birds, some of which are megas (remember the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater) because they work hard at their local patch. It does help to have a good local patch, but like many there are lots of days when you don't see very much and the winners are those that still get out of bed the next day and try again. This morning Jack was counting Wood Pigeons when he saw the Cistcola fly in from over the sea. Giving up on that essential task he alerted the local birders and the bird did the rest by staying a while. Well done and thanks Jack.

I was feeling sorry for myself this morning, worrying about the emergence of a cold that Pam had generously passed on, and only got moving when Pam passed on Jack's message. It didn't take long to join the nine people already looking at a the grass near small bush where it had dropped in a few minutes previously. After a short wait a small bird flew up from about 20 yards from the spot and gave the characteristic Zit Zit Zit call. It didn't fly very far and after a few minutes of peering into the bushes a small bird was seen moving through a small Wayfarer Tree. As it got nearer to the top the Zitting Cisticola (aka Fan-tailed Warbler) could be seen, partially hidden.

Moving slowly to one side, it was possible to see the heavily streaked upper-parts, I think the bill was all dark, this would make it a male.

It turned s if to look behind and I hoped that it was going to go to the top of the bush and give some better views, but this wasn't to be. Suddenly it was off and flying, zit zit zit. Jack reassured us that it was tired and wouldn't go far, but although a couple of time it looked to be circling back, it got higher and higher and eventually disappeared to the south west. This was much like the 2006 bird, but with he important difference, I got there to see it go!

More pictures are available here: