It is not surprising that our winter trips out to Havergate are always very popular. This is the time of year we see big numbers of wildfowl and waders feeding on the mud around the island and on our lagoons.
We seem to have hit jackpot with our water levels this month. The lagoon levels are fairly low on all of the lagoons, and all the available muddy edges are making them hard to resist for all the waders. We control the water levels on all of our lagoons depending on the time of year, the weather and the salinities. This month they are lower than normal because of some work we needed to do on main lagoon, however because the birdlife was so good, we decided to keep them low for the trips and see how we got on!
Here are the main counts for our December trips.
7th December - 2 spoonbill, 5 spotted redshank, 7 yellow legged gull, 35 pintail, 500 dunlin, 11 knot, Short eared owl, 50 grey plover, 75 bar tailed godwit, 140 shelduck.
12th December - 129 Grey plover, 116 bar tailed godwit, 870 dunlin, 250 black tailed godwit, 2 spoonbill, 260 knot, female goldeneye, 2 short eared owl, 4 spotted redshank, kingfisher, little grebe, 9 dark bellied Brent geese.
If you fancy some fresh air and exercise after your christmas and new year celebrations, we are running an early new years trip on Saturday 4th January. The boat will leave Orford Quay at 10am and return you back for 3.20pm. Booking is essential, for more details and to book see our website here https://bit.ly/2rwcQ0V