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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...