As summer rolls into autumn and the first wintering duck begin to return to the island it is time to look back at the breeding season on Havergate.
Starting with the large gulls, Herring gulls clocked in at 503 AON’s up by 17 from 2012. The lesser black backs had a massive increase, the reasons for this seems unclear but the almost complete collapse colonies on the nearby Orfordness are no doubts a contributory reason (1747 AON’s up by 500 from 2012). For both species productivity (the number of young produced) was poor, the final figures have yet to be worked out but it would seem to be significantly less than the years before. Quite why this is is unclear, strong signs that fox predation was higher this year than before in parts of the colony.
19 pairs of common gulls nested in the usual spot in and around the gorse and volunteer huts an increase of three from 2012. However, it was a terrible year in terms of productivity with no young fledged, disturbance and predation no doubts all playing a part. It was a hugely successful year for black headed gulls, 35 pairs producing around 15 young. This is the first fledgling BHG’s for almost a decade on the island and may or may not mark the resurgence of this species on the island. Either way the presence of this species was a boon for the common terns that nested amongst them.
The Common terns had a good year as 21 pairs nested in front of north and Gullery hide, fledging 11 chicks. Nest protection was once again deployed in the colony stopping the large gulls from swooping in and taking young chicks.
The common tern camp; photo by Kevin Sawford.
14 pairs of Avocets nested however rather sadly they produced no young; predation from the gulls was predictably high.
Not strictly a breeding species, however it was a promising year for spoonbills with a max count of 18 spoonbills in late August. However the real excitement came with the four birds using the nesting platforms constructed in winter 2013 throughout June and July including one adult bird. All birds showed exceptionally advanced territorial behaviour, mutual preening and stick exchanges. As of the last few days there are still at least three spoonbills on the island showing exceptionally well as they use the lagoons to feed. It will be interesting to see if these three stick around for winter or move onto the more traditional wintering grounds in southern Europe.
Spoonbills using the platforms; photo by Kevin Sawford.
More recently the island has been notable for its place as a stopover for migrant birds heading south or arriving for the winter. Up to 500 avocets can be seen daily, 400 dunlin, 500 redshanks, 20 grey plover, 15 knot, 40 black tailed godwits, 11 bar tailed godwits and a whole host of other birds.
In the next few months the amount of waders moving through the island will slow down with the wintering flocks establishing themselves, however, the flip side of this is that duck movement will intensify and the next two weeks will see over 1500 ducks arrive on the island and over 6000 in the wider estuary. There is always something to look forward to when you work on a nature reserve!