Firstly I would like to wish everyone a happy new year from all the team here at Havergate.
The year has started very blustery and we have also had few very high tides. We managed to fit in the first visitor trip of the year on the 3rdJan on one of the recent calmer days. Despite being extremely wet everyone had a good day with plenty of birds out on the lagoons. We still have 4 Spoonbills braving our winter here, great views of a ring tail Hen harrier and 2 Short Eared Owls were entertaining visitors flying close to them hunting small mammals in the long grass. The other highlight of the day for those with keen eyes was the Golden eye in amongst the hundreds of wildfowl on main lagoon.
Its going to be an exciting year for Havergate. This last year we have been working hard to repair the island after the tidal surge in 2013. We had Toby the digger driver working for 10 days repairing the sea walls and finishing of the spillway. He also helped us knock main hide down which was damaged beyond repair in the surge and set the new base up for our new hide which is currently being built. This hide will offer a great view across main lagoon. We have started work on the volunteer huts, one of which is getting a re-vamp and lastly we are half way through fixing and building the new compost toilet. It will be great to move away from the chemical toilets which we have always had on the island for volunteers and visitors to use. So far the base has been dug into the ground and secured with concrete so only the chimney can be seen. We will hopefully get out over the next couple of weeks to build the cabin.
The compost loo so far...