It's been a couple of years since the BBC last visited the island therefore it was with some pleasure that we where lucky enough last Thursday to host the BBC's countryfile team. Despite the cold temperatures (almost -6 according to the thermometer on nearby Orfordness) a good day was had by all.
The basic idea of the piece was to look at the history of the island, what managment is being done now on the island and to try and capture on film some of the islands population of Hares.
To this end we welcomed back John Partridge, an old warden, then formerly a site manager to talk about the history of the island, his and his father's work back in the 60's, 70's and 80's and to have a general reminisce.
Here's John talking to Ellie Harrison about his time on the island on the way over in the redoubtable October Storm. John is a great source of facts about the history of the island, remembering when it was more or less farmland and he is always happy to talk about the history of the island.
Attention soon turned to the current state of avocets both on the reserve and nationally. Sadly, avocets are in decline on Havergate (a subject touched on in many other blogs) on the island largely due to predation by the larger gulls but also squeezing of available nesting space. Happily this is not reflected nationally with well over a 1000 pairs of avocets nesting nationally from the south coast to Durham. We also touched on the plight and importance of Havergate to large gulls with both Herring and lesser black backed gulls struggling and going through major changes in their national ecology. Meaning that avocets as a national species are actually doing better than herring gulls!
It also helped that the view from Belpers was quite spectacular with over 600 dunlin feeding, handful's of knot and grey plover, good numbers (15 or so) bar tailed godwits, the shorelark and the usual scattering of redshank and turnstone with ringed plover's.
After some lunch, attention turned to the Havergate hares as Ellie tried to get up close and personal with these lovely little mammals. This small population (numbering no more than 30) has existed on Havergate for over 100 years. Due to a combination of factors including a small population, lack of predators and almost daily exposure to none threatening humans they have become very confiding. This then offers people a unique chance to get as close to Hare's as is possible, in fact I doubt you can get closer to Hare's anywhere else in the country.
Ellie attempting to get close to one of the islands Hare's. Watch the show to see if she succeeded! Also, Watch this space for details of when it will be aired some time in Mid to late April we would imagine. I am sure it will be well worth a watch.
If you would like to see the Hares or indeed any of the other wildlife mentioned in this article and featured in the show see our website for details.