Lisburn Group Sponsored by
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Atrabrackagh Rd, Portadown
County Armagh
Tel 028 3839 1536
County Armagh
Tel 028 3839 1536
A million voices for nature
Rathlin Island June 21st 2008
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The new toilets and information centre The cliffs where chough bred for first time
Rathlin Island is situated six miles off the North Coast of Co Antrim, near Ballycastle. During the summer months it plays host to thousands of breeding guillemots, razorbills, fulmar, kittiwakes and puffins. Our trip to Rathlin, an annual event, takes place in June when views of the breeding birds on the stacks are spectacular. We travelled by bus, curtesy of Bertie, the local driver and one of two coach's on the island, to the West Light, just four miles from Church Bay, where the RSPB have a reserve.
If you are fortunate to get Bertie driving your bus you will be entertained by his humorous commentary about the islands history and focal points along the way.
The RSPB now have toilet facilities and a shop /information centre at the top of the cliff at the West Lighthouse as well as a visitors centre in one of the rooms of the light house itself adjacent to the viewing area.
From the comfort of a safe viewpoint at the lighthouse we were able to get great views of the thousands of birds on every available space on the stacks. The puffins could picked out by their bright orange feet.Some of the birds nest quite close to the lighthouse giving great closeup views, especially the fulmar and razorbill.
Volunteer Brenda Campbell talking to visitors. Volunteer Pat Flowerday talking to visitor in the information centre
There are RSPB staff on hand during the breeding season to assist and provide scopes and bins to those who are not ardent birdwatchers. After taking in the sights of the nesting birds and the feeding gulls and gannets out to sea and the inevitable whiff of "guamie" which clears the sinus's we walked back up the concrete steps to the top of the cliff to have lunch. From a sheltered spot we were entertained by skylarks, singing overhead, whilst we ate, with a buzzard coming into view for a few seconds before dissappearing over the north cliff edge. On a small lough below us near the coastline were a number of coot, mallard and tufted duck.
It is our tradition to walk back to Church Bay and take in the views and birdlife as we do so. The weather was very dull and over cast this year so overheating was never going to be a problem!
Stonechat, wheatear, whitethroat, raven, reed bunting and sedge warbler,
along with common finches and tits were all seen along the way. Althogh
we didn't see any on the day, chough
nested and bred for the first time in recent years and were often seen
in the area after Kebble
. The bay
supports shelduck, eider
and merganser
and peregrine
hunt along the
southeast facing cliffs. The east side of Church Bay is home to a
colony of grey and
common seals.On
the
ferry returning to Ballycastle we added manx shearwater to
our birdlist. June 21st 2008 was not the sunniest or
the warmest day but the rain held off until it was time to go home on
the ferry and we enjoyed our
annual trip as much as any other.  |
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View of Church Bay (The Stacks at the RSPB reserve at West Light) searching for puffins
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Fulmar Manor Guillemots nesting Feeding Gannets
Guillemots on stack
Kittiwake family
Razorbill hotel
'The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076,
Scotland no. SC037654'