Rathlin

I should be doing a double post here, one for the walk from the West light and one for the boat trip round the island. Unfortunately the weather put paid to the boat trip and it has been re-scheduled the day we travel to England for a long weekend. So just one trip to tell you about.

It was the hottest day of the year and  I came away with 37 species including brilliant views of singing skylark, two great skuas off the West light and the usual brilliant views of auks fulmars and kittiwakes. The new seabird centre is not fully open yet but you can access the viewing platform as in previous years. Entry is still free to all . We took the bus out and walked back along the road. The harbour was full of eiders with young but as we took the fast ferry there and back we did not see much on the way across. There were also good views of linnet, stonechat and whitethroat.  My best day out on the island had 48 species so I missed out on a few but all in all I have no complaints about a stunning day out. Dinner at the Thatched Inn Broughshane on the way home was the icing on the cake. 

Heaven on earth

Guillemot city

West cliffs at Bull Point.....

..... and looking South to the coast

Having turned for home when the bad news came through we ended up in Belfast at the tall ships and were surprised to see good close views of common tern fishing in the Albert Dock, black guillemot on the Lagan and lesser black backs all over the place. We even had a wood pigeon fly across at the railway bridge near the station. Nearest wood has to be Ormeau Park. There is a tern raft between Queen's Bridge and the weir and it appeared to have two common terns sitting on eggs. Hope they can fight off the lesser black backs.