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. 

May round up at WOW

Once again I waited for a week or three and then discovered I had loads of photos and not a lot of time so here goes on a catch up of the last three weeks at WOW. The garden and NDCP have not been neglected but are not turning up new birds or meaningful photos. The first point is if you want good views and pictures of terns and gulls come to WOW.

Arctic tern

Arctic (L) and common (R)

Common tern

Common tern

Arctic tern, red bill, short legs, tail longer than wings

The black-headed gulls are feeding young, mostly on the islands but also in front of the observation room.There are chicks of all shapes and sizes from newly hatched to flying.

Two seems to be the norm

Nest, egg and chick

 

The same nest one week later, the grass has decided that summer is here!

We're cute (and gull food)

 The other species on the reserve are also coming in close, still looking for millet I supppose. Unfortunately they are out of luck as we are not supposed to go out during the breeding season in case we spook the birds and the gulls and crows make a raid on the eggs/chicks.

Moorhen

Mallard

Shoveler

Shelduck

Coot

Things got really exciting last week as we had swans with cygnets, a shelduck brood and the new tern islands finally went live. They were supposed to go out at the start of May but the terns were late in arriving so it was decided to hang on in case the gulls took them over. There are two small ones in front of the observation room and a larger one over at hide two. In less than 24 hours  there were two gull nests on the smaller ones, although the terns are showing interest.

Hi-jacked by gulls

More gull takeover!!

Small tern islands in front of the observation room, note sea fret!

Shelduck brood

Mute swan family

Bl-hd gulls, Med gull and common tern

New tern island from hide 2

Redpoll and greenfinch

Redpoll and goldfinch

Latest news is that there are at least six Med gull chicks on the main island. They are easier to see on the camera monitor so here are a couple of screen shots.

I'm skipping the list update as I need to do another post on the trip to the Gobbins on June 2, when we sailed through mist and fog in pursit of seabirds.