Havergate Island has been closed to visitors these last couple of months but we are now starting to get it ready and presentable – mainly mowing the path and painting the boat – for our trips to start up again towards the end of July.

So what has been happening out there? Havergate has approx 2000 pairs of breeding gull. To be more precise 1714 Lesser black backs and 529 Herring gulls. These guys all have…

Our residential volunteer Mike spent his second visit of the year on Havergate last month. As usual, he has written a blog post for us which talks about what he got up to. In this blog he has included how he plans his stay on an island and what food/ essentials he always packs....

This was my second visit to Havergate Island this year, the first being for a week in March for which I wrote a blog. This time I would be…

Havergate Island is made up of 6 lagoons – each of which we can control the water level of. Having this control is important because it means we can adjust the water levels depending on the time of year and what birds are using the island. All of the lagoons are saline as we just let the water from the river in to top them up and so they are packed full saline lagoon invertebrates.

In fact – Havergate Island is…

Guest Blog - Steve Everett

It’s Springtime! That means everyone’s thoughts turn to Hares on Havergate. Although the Hares are visible all year round, it always seems logical to have a guided walk event at this time of the year in their honour and the weekend just gone provided the perfect weather for it. Although it was a bit misty and cold inland first thing, on the coast it was sunny and lovely to be out in the fresh…

We do have a Thursday work party on Havergate with the volunteers currently working hard to build and maintain the current infrastructure on the island.However smaller jobs do get missed which is why it is great to have Mike on the Island. He has a very keen eye in spotting the smaller jobs that often get missed but ultimately make a difference in keeping up to date and the island looking good. Here is his blog of what…

A big 'Thank You' to the local RSPB Woodbridge local group who spent a good morning litter picking in the rain on Havergate. You can never really appreciate how much rubbish ends up in the sea and river until you have it all packaged up in front of you. For a small island of only 100ha this was only 1 hour in, and just half of the island covered!

The local RSPB Woodbridge group after only an hour of collecting…

We spent a blistering cold day on Havergate last week (26 Jan) with the work party building up the spoonbill platforms which had taken a bit of a battering over the winter with the strong winds. As I have mentioned before it is not easy getting everything we need out to the island but we always find a way to manage! First of all we had to gather and bundle up a load of scrub and transport it to the quay. We then filled…

With the December 2013 tidal surge still fresh in our minds and having only recently got the island back into good condition you can imagine the worry we were all feeling on Friday night! But I am very happy to report the island come away relatively unscathed, largely it seems, thanks to the change in the wind direction.

Above is a photo of Havergate taken with the drone from the mainland on Saturday morning. As you…

It’s always good to hear what other people think of our reserves and to see how they help out. With that in mind, I asked one of our guides for Havergate Island, Steve, to summarise Havergate for me and talk about what it has to offer, and the different trips we are running this year with his help.

So, carry on reading if you want to find out more...

Suffolk is a fascinating place to visit an RSPB nature reserve…

After the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Year it was good to get out onto the island after 10 days away and make sure everything was OK and to see what was around ready for our visitor trip on Saturday.

The island was as I had left it before Christmas and teeming with life. 4 spoonbills are still using our lagoons to loaf around and feed on. On all of the lagoons there were plenty of duck from tufted, pintail…

I finally managed to get out to the island yesterday after being unable to due to the wind last week. It was a very chilly start but the water was dead calm with not a breath of wind – perfect. Heading past the island on the boat we could see a short eared owl hunting over the sea wall, a Marsh Harrier in the distance and a kestrel sitting atop a post. As soon as we were off the boat and started walking another Short…

Winter is certainly a great time of the year to visit Havergate Island. I returned on Friday to the Island after 2 weeks away due to October Storm being out of the water for her annual inspection and tidy up. It was alive with birds on the lagoons. We managed a count of 508 wigeon, 571 teal, 12 pintail, 143 shoveler, 44 Avocet, 105 Golden Plover, 168 redshank, 275 lapwing, 44 knot, 128 black tailed godwit and ringed plover…

Find out what our Wildlife explorers got up to on Havergate Island over the weekend...

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/minsmere/b/minsmere-blog/archive/2016/09/26/suffolk-39-s-only-island.aspx

We still have spaces available on our Sunday and Monday trips for the Havergate Adventure this week. All details on how to book can be found below.

This is the perfect time of year to explore our wild isle, and our special Havergate Adventure, taking place this weekend, will help you get the most out of a visit, whatever your age or interests.  Whether you want to learn more about the island’s wildlife, or just enjoy…

I am fortunate enough to look after the wildlife on Suffolk’s only island, found on the beautiful River Ore. Havergate Island is a peaceful haven made up of saltmarsh, shingle and saline lagoons which support a wealth of wildlife. For those of us that think variety is the spice of life, the wonderful thing about Havergate is that it changes throughout the seasons, offering a different wildlife spectacle as spring warms…

Although we no longer run in the residential volunteering scheme we are still happy to have a couple of long term volunteers who know the Island well stay out there. Mike was on the island for 3 weeks and below you can read up on what he got up to. 

Havergate Island blog – July 2016

This year on the island was my eleventh since first arriving in July 2006 following my first ever residential volunteering trip on Ramsey…

One of the great things about being a warden is the diversity of the work involved in managing a nature reserve. We never stop learning new skills and learning about the unique species that live on our sites. Havergate is special in that it is made up with shingle (a unique habitat in itself) and saline lagoons. The saline lagoons are full of invertebrates that support the vast range of bird life found on them. I have…

Havergate Island is not only an important place for birds, hares and flora, there are a lot of smaller things you don’t always think about! Myself and Steve a local volunteer recently spent a couple of days with Ian Dawson a spider expert out on Havergate Island looking at spiders.

Coastal Suffolk is an area of outstanding importance for spiders. The combination of shingle, saltmarsh, reedbed, and coastal grassland…

Winter is my favorite time of year when it comes to Havergate Island. It is cold, windy, isolated and absolutely stunning! Winter is the time I see the short eared owls hunting over the saltmarsh and the marsh harriers gliding along the seawall. Barn owls, kestrels, Hen harrier and peregrines have also been regularly seen.

The volunteer work party are still working hard, we are preparing to extend our hide at the North…

It is that time of year again when we take October Storm out of the water to antifoul her and have her annual inspection (which she passed with flying colours!) We had an exciting trip up the River away from Havergate towards Aldeburgh where she was hauled out on a trailer. Whilst she is on the trailer we get the opportunity to antifoul the hull and really check it over and make sure everything is in good condition.

Over the summer we have the help of volunteers who stay in our hut on the island. These volunteers have been coming to Havergate for a number of years so they know what to expect and how remote and basic it is. They are invaluable and really make a difference in helping to keep the island and its infrastructure in good shape. Here is a blog from Becky who spent a week on Havergate at the end of August.

 A week in the…

The Havergate Adventure is nearly upon us! If you haven’t yet had the chance to visit the island then this is a great chance for you to come and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

This year will be its 27^th year of running and it is still as popular now as it was back then. Book onto one of our guided tours and you will have the chance to enjoy a 20 minutes boat ride to the island where you will then…

More than a year-and-a-half after the winter tidal surge that wreaked havoc on the Suffolk Coast, we can report that some of the hardest hit wildlife is showing signs of recovery. Surveys carried out after the tidal surge in 2013 failed to find certain plant species including yellow  fetch, which is a saltmarsh specialist and not very common on the South Suffolk Coast. It was feared this species had been lost from Havergate…

The project was one of the most ambitious habitat enhancement projects ever undertaken on the Suffolk coast. The partnership project undertaken by the National Trust at its Orford Ness site and the RSPB at its nearby Havergate Island nature reserve was shortlisted as a finalist in this year’s highly coveted Natura 2000 Award.

David Mason (National Trust), Aaron Howe (RSPB), Grant Lohoar (National Trust) attended…