A lovely summer’s day coincided with a planned outing to Bough Beech for the shortish walk and a stroll around the former Kent Wildlife Trust nature reserve with its fine bird hide overlooking a lush and large pond. Birder Dave was in attendance and was ably assisted by the Merlin app, although Birder Dave is the more accurate judge of bird calls and songs. We heard spotted flycatcher, saw three marsh tits, a hobby, kingfishers, grass snakes, heard raven (could it be that noisy individual who ‘lives’ in the Douglas fir by Chartwell?), saw green sandpiper, flocks of lapwings (once a common site in all parts of Kent, but now no longer) and the usuals. Better still was the fine company and the encounters with friendly birders who were very familiar with the site and knowledgeable. The Bough Beech is the only walk at KWNL where you can buy an ice cream half way through. And a top quality one too. At Bore Place farm there’s a sort of little barn round the back with freezers full of top notch organic lollies and tubs. You pay with via a card reader or QR code thingy – it took me a while to work out how to pay because I couldn’t be arsed to find my glasses so kept misreading ‘charge’ as ‘change’. Duh.