I appreciate that for some not being able to visit Havergate is a source of tremendous frustration, so I will do my best to bring some kind of flavour of what's going on, on the island at the moment.

Currently Havergate island is undergoing the biggest change of a generation with both lagoons in the northern end of the island being re sculpted and reshaped. With new islands being shaped across almost 5ha of lagoon…

Its been something of a purple patch for birds on the Havergate reserves for birds over the last week or so.

The highlights include a rough legged buzzard (twice), a short eared owl, a couple of hen harriers, a firecrest, two whooper swans and at least one spotted redshank. There has also been some staggering numbers of waders with over 500 avocets, 200 dunlin, 300 redshanks, 200 black tailed godwits and good numbers…

As people who visit the website will be aware, the island closed its doors to the general public at the beginning of October this is to enable the contractors to access the island and carry out the vital works as part of the EU life+ project. It is my pleasure and excitement to be able to announce that this work will begin on Wednesday.

For those who are not aware of what we have planned for the island. Broadly we…

One of Havergate's star species but also one of its hardest to see as quietly gone about having a great year.

Starlet Sea anemone's have almost every protection and status imaginable. They have their own Biodiversity action plan (BAP), are a red book species in the United Kingdom and even internationally are classed as vulnerable by the IUCN (International union for conservation of nature). Which means they are…

Its been a while since I blogged about anything to do with the island and with the weather looking increasingly unsettled over the next few days, now seems like as good a time as any.

The breeding season is well and truly wrapped up and as such attention turned to migrant waders and summering spoonbills. The island did not disappoint, with some aggressive management of the water levels the island is a hotbed of migrant…

It’s not often I get the chance to visit Havergate, so I jumped at the chance to help with this weekend’s event. In fact, it was my first visit for more than four years!

Havergate is an amazing place. The saline lagoons are already heaving with wading birds, and the saltmarsh is ablaze with the purple flowers of sea lavender.

But it’s the brown hares that attract the most attention. They must be among…

The results are in, 99% of all birds have fledged and after a changeable summer, the 2011 Havergate island breeding bird story is ready to be told.

The final counts of the large gulls where 460 herring gulls and 1030 lesser blacked backed gulls, a grand total of 1490 large gulls, how does this compare to last year? In 2010 552 herring gulls nested on the island and 1169 lesser black backed gulls. Lesser black…

The weather finally took a turn for the better on Havergate this week after what seemed like almost daily thunder showers, lightning strikes, torrential downpours and a nagging wind.

Now as the season starts to enter its final lap we can start to make some early estimates on how things have gone.

There are quite literally hordes of large gull chicks on the island. Ranging from small to almost fledgling. It…

By mid June the results of the breeding season start to come in, although how successful it proves to have been in terms of chick production will have to wait for next month.

Starting with the good news Common Terns continue to strengthen there foothold on the island with the colony increasing from 29 pairs in 2010 to 35 pairs this year. For those not familiar with the story of the terns on Havergate they reached…

Arctic Skua? kittiwake? little tern?

All good guesses but since the year 2000 the two fastest declining seabirds are the much less heralded herring gull and lesser black backed gulls.

This is according to the SMP (seabird monitoring programme) data recently released by the JNCC. This is a ongoing annual monitoring programme of all 26 breeding seabirds in the UK that allows broad trends to be established…

Aside from the glorious weather in the last week on Havergate, what else has been going on?

The breeding season is starting to gather momentum. The gulls have taken a little while to get going but both the lesser black backed gulls and herring gulls are now on eggs, though there is still less than 200 nests in total. Compared to last year this feels like a slower start which is perhaps an accurate assessment…

The summer survey season began today on Havergate with the traditional season opener the Hare Transect. This is the count where we determine how many Hares we have on the island.

Last year the population of Hares stood at 29 and in 2011 the population stands at 27. Though this is a decrease of two, the population is by and large stable this is despite another harsh winter and a die off some adult Hares in the…

Spring has undoubtedly sprung this week with the weather to match. With it has come to the usual early spring bird migrants including a Black Redstart, an array of Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler and the first Swallows and Sandwich Terns of the year.

Star birds recently must be a Black Necked grebe which spent about a week on Havergate feeding in front of Gullery lagoon, this is only the 6^th ever record of this…

Late March has seen the island begin to don its breeding season cloak.

Big numbers of gulls have arrived at the last Webs count 624 Lesser Black backs had returned to the lagoons and 518 Herring gulls. This count doesn’t include the salt marshes or the long shingle bank at an estimate these populations add another 200 or so to each species. Which means we are somewhere near the islands population. In addition…

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I hope Kieren and Aaron will excuse my intrusion on the Havergate blog - especially as I haven't managed to make it over to the island for a few years. Havergate has been on my mind for the last couple of days as I've just sent out a media release celebrating some of the successes from this year's breeding season Havergate - I won't dwell on these as Kieren's regular updates have told the unfolding story of the summer…