February has been a crazy month for Havergate, and i'll go into whats been happening on the island throughout February a little further down. Firstly, I wanted to mention our brilliant Havergate Hare trips which are almost fully booked for March. We still have a couple of spaces available for Saturday 24th at 1pm, Sunday 25th at noon and 1pm. If you cant get booked onto this trip for March, don't worry as there are still plenty of spaces available for the April Hare trips.
We also still have spaces on our March Wildlife River Trip. This trip takes you around the island before landing and taking you out for a look out onto the lagoons.
To book, or for more information on any of our Havergate events, click here.
Work party
February has been a varied month for Havergate Island. On the days we have been able to get out with the work party we have been cracking on with the construction of the hide. It is looking fantastic, and when finished, will offer views overlooking Cottage Flood, Belpers and also Orford.
High tides
On Thursday 15th Feb we experienced incredibly high spring tides. Probably some of the highest I have seen since working out here (and actually being on the island at the right time). It looked incredible as half of the island disappeared!
Snowy days
I was very keen to get over to Havergate during the snowy week, so I wrapped up warm and braved the journey over. The island looked very serene and it was very quiet with not much activity, apart from the birds huddled up on the lagoons and feeding on the open water. The island was covered in Hare footprints which was brilliant to see.
Hares and other wildlife.
The hares have been very active since the beginning of February, on calm and warmer days I quite often see them chasing through the gorse and up over the banks. I have a couple of trail cameras set up around to keep an eye on any predators getting over, but I am more likely to capture the hares and other wildlife mooching about.
February was a great month for waterfowl, with great numbers of wigeon, gadwell, teal, shoveler and pintail. On the full island count, we had 210 avocet, 20 ringed plover, 10 grey plover, 300 dunlin, 10 blacktailed and 3 bartailed godwit, 169 redshank, marsh harrier and ring tailed hen harrier.
All in all, a great and varied February on the Island. With extreme weather and big tides, I think the island is getting ready for Spring, which we all hope, is just around the corner.