Executive Committee Biographies
Martin Coath started birding in 1952 and settled with his family in Kent in 1978. Soon after early retirement he joined this committee in 1997 as Recorder for South Kent. His local patch is Sevenoaks WR, but he is a regular at Bough Beech. He is also a member of that august group known as the Saganauts who rampage widely round the county and occasionally beyond. He has also birded widely in Europe and more recently in Latin America.

Don Taylor has served the KOS in various capacities since settling in Kent in 1964, starting as Recorder for Central on the Editorial Committee, of which he became Chairman during 1981 – 2000. He was senior Editor of The Birds of Kent, published in 1981. He wrote and illustrated Birdwatching in Kent, published in 1985. He was commissioned to write the Kent section of Where to Watch Birds in Kent, Surrey & Sussex, now in its 4th edition. Helm then published his Birding in Kent in 1996. When not birding in Kent, he travels widely in his quest to see all the waders of the world. He and Stephen Message were commissioned respectively to write and illustrate Waders of Europe, Asia & North America, published in December 2005.

Barry Wright is 40 years old and first started bird-watching at the age of 11 when he was more interested in looking out the window for birds at school instead of studying!!

He gradually got more and more hooked on seeing birds and began travelling further afield. His job was fortuitously located at Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford and enabled him to go bird-watching each lunchtime at work. He has travelled to many parts of the World and feels most at home in the rainforest, often in the company of the mozzies and leeches!! He is particularly interested in seeing the rarer species in the World whilst back at home he concentrates on birding the North Kent marshes although he has spent long spells at Reculver, Swalecliffe, Dungeness and Bockhill in the past.
Mike Henty’s home county is Kent but he moved to Surrey when his job relocated. Having no coastline in that county means that he regularly returns to Kent to do some proper birding, often at Dungeness. This is not for reasons of a perverted love of shingle or power stations but, when deciding where in Kent to go birding, “If in doubt – Dunge!” is a good policy to follow."
Ken Lodge describes himself as Secretary and general dogsbody to the E&R Committee. Now returned to Thanet where he was born, he is happiest doing WeBS counts and other surveys as well as a local patch study on a nearby farm. Very much laments the passing of CBC's. He is an integral part of the KBR production team as he is one of the few people able to decipher the writing of the major contributor.
Dave Sutton started birding in 1978 (a little late in life) joining the Bromley RSPB group, later to become field trip organizer a post held for around ten years. My first local patch was at EImers End sewage farm in Beckenham, the great thing about having a sewage farm as your patch is if you wear the same clothes every day should anybody ask you what's about they won't hang around for the answer?, allowing you to continue your birding. Enjoys being involved with both WeBS and BBS surveys, has carried out low tide counts on the Medway and Swale, and for a number of years had a CBC site at Upper Beechen wood, Lullingstone and another at Saxton wood near Brands Hatch. Moving to Birchington in 1999, His local patch is now 350 acres of farmland.
Jonathan Braggs was born and bred near Maidstone and spent his school holidays at Dungeness, getting the buzz from the perennial marvel of migration. After a few years birding Devon dumps and Cornish valleys, whilst at Plymouth Poly, he moved back east and settled in Hertfordshire. Interesting though inland reservoirs and BBS squares are, he is still drawn to the coast and its ever changing landscapes and inhabitants. His first report as editor of the Kent Bird Report was for 1998.
Ann Abrams was born in Cornwall and has, from an early age, been interested in wildlife. The countryside where she lived was teeming with all sorts of interesting flora and fauna that she was encouraged to investigate both at school and at home. Meeting and marrying Chris in the early 1970's re-awakened this interest. However it also gave her an aversion to sitting around in the cold waiting......and waiting...... Luckily they have been able to go to many warm countries too, where waiting for birds to appear can be far more interesting. She was persuaded to become Honorary Secretary of the KOS in 2003. She hopes that her varied life skills add to those of fellow committee members enabling the KOS to achieve its aims.
Chris Abrams has been birding for well over forty years. He moved to Kent in 1970 and since then has managed to see most of this county's birds. An ex teacher he enjoys sharing with others the varied delights of birdwatching. He enjoys world travel and has travelled widely in Asia, Europe, Africa and North and South America. He began helping the KOS some time ago when he took on the job of East Kent Recorder but when the job of running the KOS website became available he accepted the title of webmaster and began redesigning the website. He considers himself very fortunate to have Oare Marshes as his local patch.
Jack Chantler has been birding for about 35years in Kent, initially at Dungeness and thence, during the late 70's and 80's, around the country chasing rareties. From 1994 he found the joys of birding at Bockhill where he can now be found most days especially during  migration time.
Likes ...... Warblers and THFC.
Dislikes........Egrets, Arsenal and celery.
Ambition.......... to see a Roller at Bockhill.

Ian Hodgson has been birdwatching since the mid 1970s. Very much a short distance migrant within East Kent, he has concentrated on the St.Margaret’s area since 1978, but considers himself fortunate to have been able to travel widely, mainly in Asia, but more recently to Central and South America. He has been Editor of KOSNews, the Society’s newsletter, since 1995, following a brief stint as joint Editor of the Kent Bird Report in the late 1980s. He also enjoys/suffers rugby and cricket.

Tony Morris was born in Dartford and started an interest in all things natural, especially birds and butterflies from an early age. He still remembers getting his first "Peterson" in 1955, before that the only book was the Observers book! He has carried on the interest throughout his life and joined the KOS in the sixties. He was on the London records committee for 15 years, served on OSME council for 12 years, as secretary and then as a funds raiser. He retired early and has resided in St Margaret's at Cliffe for six years. During this time he joined the KOS Exec and has been deputy Chairman and Indoor meetings organiser for four years. He loves birding trips abroad, especially with one or other of his birding sons, who are both better travelled than he and are now teaching him rather than the other way round. He likes Waders, but his favourite family is Sandgrouse. He gets fed up with the amount of time birders devote to introductions.
Glad I'm not as old as Jack!
John Cantelo started birding in his home county of Hampshire in the early 1960s moving to Canterbury in 1978 to take up a teaching post. He was a committee member and leader of Canterbury RSPB group for several years.  Since 2001 he has also been a part-time field teacher at Dungeness RSPB reserve. Although his birding in the UK has been largely restricted to east Kent, in recent years he has become a frequent visitor to SW Spain.  Despite a reluctance to drive for many years, he has still managed to build up an excellent county list. That many rarities were seen in his car-less days is down to his persistent begging to get much needed lifts.   This  talent for begging he intends to employ in extracting articles for the KOS Newsletter for which he is now editor.

Robin Mace has come to birding later in life after many years concentrating on singing (finally giving up when his top notes deserted him). His home in Ashford is convenient for all the major birding sites in Kent and he also birds in the UK and Europe. Robin works as an IT consultant and provides technical support on the website, the records database and KBR production. He has recently been involved in the project to put all the past KBRs on to CD.
Gordon Allison is currently working as part of the RSPB's North Kent Marshes Team, covering the reserves at Northward Hill, Shorne Marshes, Higham Bight, Rye Street and Elmley. He has been working for RSPB since 1991 at such far-flung locations as Lumbister on Shetland, Ynys Feurig on Anglesey and Blacktoft Sands. Prior to this, he worked for the National Trust on the Farne Islands and for the Lincolnshire Trust at Gibraltar Point.