Heavy Horse Show 2021.
We are pleased to report that the Heavy Horse Show 2021 went ahead in Shoreham on Sunday September 5th 2021. The WKBG held its usual stall, with plenty of fluffy badgers going to new homes, the noticeboard with information about what is happening in the world of badgers was popular as was the tombola. Our field officers were on hand to offer advice on any badger related matters .
West Kent Badger Group AGM 2021
Our AGM was held on line this year via Zoom on Tuesday 18th May . We were delighted to welcome two new committee members – Valerie Russell and Darren Russell to our group
Our speaker was Martin Newcombe, president of the East Kent Badger Group who gave an excellent presentation on his experiences of working with badgers. This has been a lifetimes work and covers everything from badger rescues to advising where a development is proposed.
We all agreed that closer working together arrangements between East and West Kent badger groups can only be a good thing and it was agreed that we will endevour to arrange some joint meetings over the coming months.
WKBG Zoom Event . 7.30 Thursday 25th February 2021
Many of you will have attended our 1st Webinar/Zoom meeting when the wonderful Marcel Payne, who runs the Facebook, Badgers of Bearsted and Beyond, spoke about how he set up his ‘Badger Restaurant’ attracting many badgers as well as foxes and a ‘badger cat’!
Our second Webinar/Zoom meeting was on 7.30 Thursday 25th February when Dawn Varley, Acting CEO of the Badger Trust spoke to us about the challenges faced by The Badger Trust and the plans they have to promote badgers and their welfare in the future. Dawn has huge experience in working for our wildlife and will be telling us a bit about her background and her passion for badgers.
We also had an exhibition of photos depicting beautiful badgers and pictures from some of the events that the WKBG has held in recent years.
Thank you to all those who attended. It was great to meet so many of you – even if it was ‘on line’!
DUE TO THE CORONA VIRUS OUTBREAK - THIS IS NOT NOW GOING AHEAD> WE HOPE TO HAVE A NEW DATE AT SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE>
"Derbyshire badger vaccination project, how to make a difference" - a talk by Debbie Bailey.
Friday March 20th 20207 for 7.30pmSt Johns Hall, Hildenborough
Debbie is the lead vaccinator for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and is travelling to Kent to speak at our special event in March. The meeting starts at 7 with refreshments and a chance to share updates about WKBG activities, such as the Sett Survey Project.
Debbie will be speaking from 7.30 and there will be an opportunity for questions and a discussion on whether it might be feasible to plan a vaccination scheme for West Kent. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Our 'All About Badgers - Sett Survey Project launch and workshop' took place on 23rd November 2019 at Shoreham Village Hall when 22 badger enthusiasts spent a productive morning discussing what is involved in participating in the updating of our sett records in West Kent. We are very grateful to everyone who came along. So many good ideas and suggestions were aired and shared. We can provide forms for anyone interested in taking part in the survey project. Hopefully they can be downloaded from this website once I have mastered the technology for doing this!!
Our committee member, Kathie, is leading on our Sett Survey projectIf you are interested in helping or would like to know more, contact us by email - westkentbadgergroup@yahoo.co.uk.
West Kent Badger Group's Field Officer, Dave Witherspoon gave a talk on - Badgers (what else!) on 21st October at Hildenborough Church Hall. This was organised by Kent Wildlife Trust and we hope will open the door to more joint projects between KWT and the WKBG. Thank you, Kathie Foster, for organising this for us.
Heavy Horse Show in Shoreham. Sunday 1st September 2019
Thank you to everyone who visited us at the West Kent Badger Stall in the big marquee! We were delighted to enlist 11 new members
Nature Needs You! Maidstone Museum - Saturday 31st August
This was a day for celebrating nature with stalls, trails, craft activities and more! The WKBG had a stall which generatedconsiderable interest and Kathie, Penn and Gerald were pleased to meet a number of like minded people who were interested in the life of the badger and were concerned about the forthcoming badger culls.
The WKBG were delighted to join other wildlife groups at this special information event at Maidstone Museum.
Our volunteers – Kathie, Penn, Gerald and Andy – were there with information and leaflets about badgers and their needs.
As always, they brought a range of badger related merchandise and an information board illustrating some of the challenges faced by our Kent ‘brocks’.
All About Badgers
Friday 25th January 2019
Over 130 people packed Shoreham Village Hall to hear a rousing speech by Dominic Dyer from The Badger Trust. Dominic Dyer handed out copies of Chris Packham’s Peoples Manifesto for Wildlife. The photo shown was sent to Chris Packham to illustrate our support.
The wonderful Hop Pickers musical group helped to make the evening very special. Caterer, Agneta Edwards, provided some delicious vegan food and there were many badger bargains snapped up on the Bring and Buy Stall.
The evening increased our resolve to do all we can to protect our precious Kent badgers. Thank you to all who attended and especially to those who have joined the group. Anyone who would like to become a member can find the application form on this website.
The photo above was taken to send to Chris Packham to assure him that he has many supporters in West Kent.
West Kent Badger Group Annual General Meeting 2019 took place on Saturday, 27th April at 2pm at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve (Bradbourne Vale Road TN13 3DH).
Speaker, Luke Steele, from The League Against Cruel Sports, gave a powerful presentation on the devastating impact on wildlife from the grouse and other game birds industry.
The committee has two new members- Kathie Foster and Robert D’Arcy who were welcomed ‘on board’. Sheila Birkin was elected chairman, Gary Cliffe is secretary, Andy Palmer is treasurer, Gerald Carr remains as membership secretary and Dave Witherspoon and Derek Wilkinson continue as field officers. Pen Lewington and Karen Gillen, along with Derek, are focusing on events. We hope to offer a summer walk for members later in the year and it was suggested we run another ‘All About Badgers’ event. It was confirmed that the WKBG is now a full member of the Badger Trust. More details on the AGM will appear in the Summer edition of the newsletter
Training sessions for volunteers interested in rescuing badgers.
Trainer, Dave Witherspoon, led the training session on 24th March when 7 participants were provided with detailed information about the life of the badger and what is involved in rescues. Dave used his purpose built training room plus an ‘on site’ visit to a local sett as the venues for the morning. The WKBG is hoping to create a list of volunteers who will be able to assist with the large numbers of requests we have over a year for assistance with injured badgers and where a badger has been run over and killed, help with searching for cubs.
A further training session took place on Sunday 21st July when Dave Witherspoon gave a talk to new volunteers. Unfortunately, due to the heavy rain that morning, the group did not make a visit to the sett Dave uses to go through some aspects of the training but fortunately, most of the attendees were experienced in what to look out for when looking for and at a badger sett.
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