News

Friday, 2 May 2008

Woodbridge Local Group is celebrating its 21st Year

Woodbridge Local Group is celebrating its 21st Year

The Woodbridge Local Group was formed in 1987. In October of that year the much documented hurricane hit the south east of England, Suffolk being among the counties bearing the brunt of the damage. All the hides on Havergate Island were flattened and this provided the first opportunity for the new Group to commence work parties. Seven of the eight hides were rescued and rebuilt and the Group's association with the Island has continued ever since.

In 1989 the Group decided to celebrate the RSPB's Centenary Year by running boat trips to Havergate Island, providing a guided tour and organising refreshments. This ran for nine days and was so popular that we have been running our annual Havergate Adventure ever since - though not for nine days! Our next Adventure runs from 9th to 12th August, 2008.

Our association with Havergate has also continued with the provision of work parties and over the past few years we have helped to construct sluices, rebuild all four bridges, rebuild the hides (now reduced to five and a viewing platform), rebuild or replace the board walks and carry out many other tasks.

Work parties are not restricted to Havergate, however, and there are regular sessions during the autumn to spring months at North Warren and Boyton Reserves.

We have been fortunate to have maintained a high standard of speakers at our monthly meetings over the years and have regular monthly weekend field trips and also popular mid-week walks. Every year the Group organises a holiday or long weekend, visiting much of the UK but also on alternative years visiting such places as Spain, Romania, Texas and Bulgaria.

And now we have reached our 21st year! To celebrate we have produced a special colour edition of our bi-annual magazine which contains additional articles written by people associated with the Group (members and RSPB staff) providing a brief history from different aspects. We are also organising a special day out for members (all tickets sold) in June.