Memories of Dungeness and Dungeness Bird Observatory 1900-1990

• Memories of Dungeness and Dungeness Bird Observatory 1900-1990
• Dungeness Bird Observatory Trust, 2022. 144 pages, colour and black-and-white images.
• Available from Dungeness Bird Observatory. Pbk, £12.

Dungeness is part of the fabric of British birding and many of us with an interest in migration and rarities have traversed the shingle expanse at least once. Some will have rushed there to see Audouin's Gull or Acadian Flycatcher, while others will have made the May pilgrimage to get a taste of the South-East's best seawatching, or simply in search of something unexpected. The peninsula's significance to our hobby extends beyond living memory. It seems fitting then that this quirky corner of Kent is now the subject of a book in that all-too-rare genre celebrating birding social history.  

When Memories of Dungeness and Dungeness Bird Observatory 1900-1990 landed on my desk, I braced myself for the task of picking any good birding yarns out from the reminiscences of local fishmongers and memoirs about lighthouse construction. The wary reader can be assured this isn't the case; it is very much a book of birding memories and history. A snappier title and sharper front cover design would have made this clearer and significantly boosted the appeal. Each time I reach for the book, I prefer to start from the back cover and admire its charming recording area map, drawn some time pre-nuclear power station and perfectly capturing the spirit of Dungeness and its birds.

Many of the accounts offer a rare chance to get a feel for Dungeness before the reactors were built. In what sounds like a task comparable to herding cats, Gill Hollamby, Dungeness Bird Observatory Trust Chair of Trustees, has gathered stories dating back to the 1940s from stalwarts who are still going strong. She has filled in the gaps with snippets from diaries, log entries and bird reports written by others who have passed, as well as relevant extracts from HG Alexander's Seventy Years of Birdwatching, taking us all the way back to 1902.

The 49 mostly bite-sized submissions and extracts include stories of falls of Red-spotted Bluethroats and breeding Kentish Plovers alongside riveting accounts of nights catching and ringing migrants drawn to the beam of the lighthouse. You’ll find plenty of insights into the lives of the biggest names of the era. Find out what happened when a Great Skua was put in with Bob Scott's chickens and which sleeping birder was run over by Peter Grant, alongside countless other anecdotes only 20th-century birding could produce.

There is room for introspection too, with Steve Gale's beautifully crafted account of his formative 'Dunge' days being a real highlight. It all ends with current observatory warden David Walker relating the events that led to him taking up his epic tenure in 1989. There is a logic in cutting off at this point, but I was left wanting more and would have preferred the full century and more recent tales that drawing the line at the millennium would have delivered.

Whether or not you've been to Dungeness, this anthology of birding life is a timepiece of the magic, community and madness that only this hobby can provide. It is also a reminder that bird observatories provide lasting human experiences as well as exciting and valuable ornithology. How brilliant it would be if other observatories take inspiration and undertake similar projects to add to a wider collection of memories.