Havergate Island

Havergate Island comprises six salt water lagoons covering 60 hectares, surrounded by earthen banks. There are also 40 hectares of salt marsh and four hectares of vegetated shingle.[3] There are also areas of grazing marsh and mud flats, and the site provides important habitat for rare gulls, wading birds and other species.[4]

Adult pied avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) feeding on mud flats

The island is an important breeding, roosting and feeding site for many migratory and resident bird species. The UK's largest breeding population of pied avocets and Suffolk's only breeding Sandwich terns can be found there.[4][5] Other birds found on the island include Eurasian oystercatchers, redshanks, ringed plovers, golden plover, dunlin, greenshank and ruddy turnstones[1] as well Eurasian wigeon, pintail and northern wheatears.[6] The lagoons and marshes make it an important roosting and feeding site .

Birds of prey including short-eared owls and Western marsh harriers have also been seen hunting over the island. Mammals on the island include mice, voles and a stable population of around 29 hares. Common seals have also been spotted in the river around the island. Butterfly species commonly found on the island include skippers, small coppers, walls, meadow browns and gatekeepers.[6]

A bird hide at Dove Point on the southern end of the island

The island and nature reserve is only accessible by boat from Orford quay and only at certain times and dates. Prior booking is required for access, and group bookings can be made. The RSPB charge a fee to enter the nature reserve, with a reduced fee for members. Havergate Island is near to the Suffolk Coast Path, a long-distance footpath, and to Route 1 of the Sustrans National Cycle Network and bus Route 160 from Ipswich to Orford.[15]

Facilities on the island include a number of bird hides, toilets and a picnic area.[7] Guided tours are also available. The site is unsuitable for wheelchair or pushchair users due to the unimproved nature of its paths and boat access.

Havergate Island was first walled for land reclamation around 500 years ago and for much of its history has been used for farming. It was used as arable land and for grazing cattle, and at times for smuggling; the last inhabitants left the island at the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s it was used for summer grazing and in 1933 a gravel company set up shingle extraction on the island but this was found to be unprofitable and they soon left. During World War II the military took control of the island along with Orford Ness. Without human intervention during this time salt water flooded parts of the island making it unsuitable for agricultural use. Havergate Island was formerly an extra-parochial area,[16] in 1868 it became a civil parish[17] and by 1961 the parish was unpopulated.[18] On 1 April 1985 the parish was abolished and merged into Orford.[19][20]

In 1947 pied avocets were found on the island, as well as at nearby Minsmere, for the first time in the UK since they had become extinct in the country over 100 years before. A number of pairs bred that year on Havergate Island and raised eight chicks between them. Following this discovery the RSPB purchased the island in 1948 and have since managed it for the benefit of birds and the environment.[3][21]