Apologies for such a delayed update on our Havergate Reserves. I was hoping to be able to give some good news and say that our trips will be up and running again soon but, unfortunately, we have made the decision to postpone all our visitor trips this year. However, we hope to welcome all visitors back in the new year with a great events program, as well as our regular first Saturday of the month trips.
When I say postpone all, I mean all except one. We are hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that we can safely run our Havergate Adventure. We have been running the Havergate Adventure with the Woodbridge local group every year now for the past 34 years, and we are hoping we can go ahead on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of August. We will have more details when the restrictions ease on the 21st of June.
Havergate is looking great at the moment and the breeding season is in full swing -we have already seen the first gull chicks! We will be undertaking a full island count towards the end of this month which is always a fun, if slightly mind-blowing, thing to do with so many gulls. Hare numbers are good. I am seeing a fair bit of activity every time I go out, I also spotted a leveret which made my day!
Boyton Marshes was doing exceptionally well with a peak count of 26 nesting Avocets. The first ones hatched on the 7th of May and chicks were regularly being spotted. Unfortunately, the terrible weather seems to be affecting everyone, including our birds. It looks like, after the storm and heavy rains we had on the 21st most of the remaining sitting Avocets deserted. A few were still sitting tight (these could possibly already be brooding chicks). Fingers crossed our new predator fence keeps those ground predators out and we see the remaining chicks through to fledging.
Photo Credit: John Richardson, Boyton
The work on the new scrape we started back in January (and had to stop because it was too wet and muddy) will be starting again this week. The fields are completely dry, and in perfect condition to start work again.
At Hollesley we have 7 avocets nesting, oystercatcher, 12 lapwings, and 5 redshanks. I heard my first cuckoo there on the 23rd of April.