Island hopping - 3 - Rockabill

 Another day another island. This was a 4 hour trip out of Malahide to Rockabill and Lambay which are in Dublin Bay. They contain significant seabird colonies on Ireland's east coast. Rockabill in particular is a haven for the rare roseate tern (1700+ pairs) with common (1600+) and arctic terns (55) as well as kittiwake(200) and black guillemots (60). It is off limits to people but we had special permission for a small group to land for a couple of hours. The island is only the size of a football pitch and has a lighthouse and accommodation which is used by Birdwatch Ireland wardens from May to September when the terns are present. It is an exhilarating place to go as you are surrounded by the sight, sound and smell of seabirds. You are also under attack and need a reasonable hat and old clothes as you may be shat upon (I was). Forget long lenses, you don't need them, as the terns are seen close up and personal. For once the point and shoot camera and the phone did the job. Lambay Island has a gannet colony plus the usual guillemots, razorbills, puffins, cormorants and shags. We cruised off the cliffs but did not land. We did however see fallow deer and wallabies which are on the island. There is an excellent one hour documentary about Rockabill on Vimeo which is well worth a watch as it will fill in a lot of background and give views which I will never get. 

Rockabill on Vimeo

https://vimeo.com/462712696

I am only going to post a few photos, I took far too many on the grounds that I might not be back. As one of the other guys said, his computer will crash and die when he goes to edit everything he has on his Canon set up. 

Roseate tern

Black guillemots

Lighthouse

Common tern nest, 2 eggs & 2 chicks

Kittiwake ledges

Roseate tern boxes

Roseate tern

Common tern

Common tern and chick

Rockabill

Gannet colony on Lambay

Common tern nest on top of the wall

Under attack!!

I will hopefully catch up on the patches and general birding in a further post, but felt the islands deserved their own space as the three trips were equally memorable in their own way. Rathlin for peace and solitude, Islay and Jura for the sea eagles and Rockabill for the most amazing tern spectacle I have ever seen or am ever likely to see.