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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...

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...

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...

Otters once a near mythical sighting has become increasingly common in the last few years, in fact I heard someone recently describe them as “ubiquitous”. The island is a classic example of this before August 2010 the total number of sightings on Havergate sat at zero. Admittedly, there...

It feels now that winter has truly arrived, the temperatures are plunging and the nights are drawing in and the clocks are about to go back. A chilling sentence for anyone who lives in the British Isles. It was therefore nice to get an update on the movements of the ringed gull chicks on Havergate...

Colin is quite right. The data obtained from ringing activities can help to inform our conservation decisions. For example: Ringing studies of cirl buntings in Devon showed that individuals rarely moved more than 2km between breeding territories and winter feeding areas. Subsequent conservation programmes...