The busy season on Havergate Island is over for this year and it seems to be a good time to tidy up all the interesting news that has gathered on my desk in the past few months.
Havergate Island, once the RSPB's best kept secret - as some said - has become well known this year. Of course, you remember: there was the feature in the Suffolk Episode on BBC Countryfile on 14 April.
Indeed, that feature really made a huge difference for us! We had to run additional boat trips for a few months, to deal with the sudden interest and we still get bookings because of it.
As it was, we were quite happy about the new popularity and didn't expect to get even more publicity in the same month!
It came really unexpectedly and we found ourselves in the spotlight again on St Georges Day, 23 April: Havergate Island had made it onto Place 78 in the '101-Things-to-Do before you go abroad' campaign of VisitEngland, published on: www.101thingstodoinengland.co.uk
How did that happen? It all started with an email enquiry from VisitSuffolk about photos of the birds on the island dropping onto my desk, just when I had started in my new post as Havergate's Events Officer. A few more emails later, with the help of a very cute and innocent looking hare and a brilliant photographer, the jury at VisitSuffolk had been convinced to shortlist our island for the VisitEngland selection, as the best place in the UK to see wild brown hares very, very close up.
I can only guess what happend next. The campaign's little Rough Guides booklet '101-Things-to-Do before you go abroad' might give us some missing links for a convincing explanation. In the booklet, you will find Bill Oddie on the campaign's selection panel for the 'Wildlife & Nature' section of the list. He states in his short note for the wildlife selection, a deep love for sea-birds and also admits an obsession for small islands. Could that give away why Suffolk's only island ended up in the VisitEngland list as one out of only two Suffolk attractions?
It might explain a lot, but you haven't seen the photo yet, which I had sent in... and I am still convinced it has helped too, because, who could resist this little fellow:
Our lovely young hare, portrayed brilliantly by Jon Evans, one of the Photography Tutors on the island, has become Havergate Island's aimable face on the campaign website and hopefully will tempt many people for years to come to visit Havergate Island to meet it personally.