Phil Smith

My blogs

Gender	Male
Introduction	born and bred in Dover, educated at Dover grammar school, early interest in all sports , nature and steam trains. I lived very close to the railway line at Tower Hamlets. On leaving school I found a career in local govt as a building inspector working at Dover, Ashford and Shepway councils, retiring after forty years service in 2006. I played football in the kent amateur league for crabble athletic, cricket for dover cosmopolitans, and late in life discovered the joys of rugby playing for Dovers lower sides into my forties. I have two sons Colin and Philip[packet]and am in a relationship with Cathy. Birdwatching began seriously in my late teens when Spud Taylor introduced me to the song of the willow warbler , terns at sandwich bay, redshanks and snipe at stodmarsh and shelduck at nagden and apart from when rugby became all consuming I have been a birder ever since. Since retiring I have spent most of my time wandering around East Kent watching and now photographing birds and butterflies. I am a volunteer ranger at Samphire Hoe on a tuesday where my claim to fame is finding a hoopoe in august 2009.
Interests	birding, rugby, football, cricket, ships, weather, astronomy, real ale.