Rathlin 2023
After spending over 10 weeks on Rathlin, compared to only four last year, we can well and truly say we have caught the Rathlin bug. From watching 250,000 birds crammed on the cliffs in June, to only a few enjoying the quiet ledges in September, we've seen a wide range of highs and lows, not only at the colony, but around the whole island. This was our second time on Rathlin, after we spent a month living and working here the previous season. As soon as we left last year, we were counting down the days until we got to return to this very special island. This time we arrived on the island positive it was going to last just two weeks, but we couldn't have been more wrong.
A holiday before a holiday
In contrast to last year's 15 hour travel journey starting at 3am, we decided to take a much more relaxed route getting to Rathlin. We decided to explore Northern Ireland for around a week before ending at Rathlin as we didn't get the chance to do so last year. During this time, we did some of the more well known tourist destinations, like the Giant's Causeway and Dark Hedges, but our favourite place turned out to be The Gobbins. We were surprised that before planning this trip, neither of us had heard of it, but were looking forward to the walkways and bridges dramatically perched on the cliffside. When we arrived at the visitor centre, 15 minutes before our slot, we were further amazed to discover that The Gobbins is home to Northern Ireland's second largest seabird colony (second to the Rathlin West Light). Being able to walk right under an active seabird colony and be almost within touching distance of the nesting birds was a truly amazing experience and ended up being the unexpected highlight of the trip.
Settling in
As soon as we arrived on Rathlin it was like we never left. We dropped our bags off at the volunteer cottage and got a lift up to the centre to start work. Some of the staff who worked at the centre last year were working again this season so we got to say hi to everyone along with getting to know the new staff and the colony once more.
The centre and lighthouse were mostly the same as last season, but an exciting development was the upgrade of the pin badge board. Last year it was two cork boards on a table but now it was a magnificent triple board stand which spun. Two sides were for pin badges and the other was the new “Exciting Sightings” board. Last year this board was rather hidden but this time it takes centre stage in the middle of the room. This was a big improvement from last year as a lot of people are interested in what has been seen here and this board has all of the exciting developments in the colony, including the first sightings of eggs, chicks, and fledglings, amongst many other exciting cetacean and bird spots. Over the course of our stay on Rathlin I, along with others, added small drawings and doodles of the sightings to make the board more colourful and eye-catching.
This year, we decided to arrive on Rathlin earlier than last time. Partly to see the colony at its peak, but also to catch our favourite period in the seabird's calendar - silly seabird season. During this time, some of the birds, often razorbills, explore places they usually wouldn't venture too. They might be young adults, not old enough to breed yet, or breeding adults whose egg had failed and now just passing the time by adventuring. They can be seen much closer to our viewing platforms than other times, and sometimes on the platform itself, coming to see what we're all doing. Having read about this last year in Stickybeak's (a blog ran by Hazel Watson and Ric Else, two nature nerds who live on Rathlin) bird report for 2020, we were eager to experience the birds' bold curiosity as we had missed it by the time we arrived last year. Gladly, we did manage to spot some razorbills coming in close, with some almost within touching distance!
Jumplings
At the end of June, a spectacular event happens throughout the whole colony. At only three weeks old and unable to fly, thousands of guillemot and razorbill chicks (affectionately named 'jumplings') prepare to fling themselves off their cliff-side nests, plunging into the sea below. If you're lucky, your parents might have nested close enough to the bottom of the cliff that you can leave your nest and almost wade out into the sea, but for some, they have to jump from almost 100 m up. At this height, they're falling for over five seconds frantically flapping their tiny wings to steer themselves away from the cliff they just left and into the sea below. This spectacle happens over the course of a few weeks and usually at dusk or night where they are less likely to be preyed upon by gulls and other colony predators.
During this time, the colony also becomes incredibly noisy as the parents and chicks are all calling to each other and making their way to their jump sites. Usually, the kittiwakes drown out the lower and quieter calls of their auk neighbours, but now the chorus of tens of thousands of jumplings and their parents take centre stage. The male parents are positioned in the sea, calling up to their chicks, encouraging their young to jump, and once they do so, will look after the chick for a further 10-12 weeks out at sea, teaching them how to hunt. By the time the chick is abandoned, they're able to fly and fend for themselves. They won't come back to land for the next four or five years as they mature and look for good hunting grounds for when they rear young of their own.
The centre had organised a “Jumplings night” where the staff, volunteers, and island residents get the chance to watch this event up close from the seabird centre, which is usually closed after 5pm. We spent hours around dusk eagerly looking out for any movement of chicks through spotter scopes and binoculars on the opposite sea stacks and cliffs, watching them edge their way towards the edge and building up the courage to take the leap. As the light started to fade, and the hot chocolate was running out, the number of jumplings kept increasing. Eventually, we had to call it a day so we waved goodbye to the jumplings and wished then luck as they paddled off into the sunset.
A change of plans
It was coming towards the end of the two weeks that we were supposed to be staying when an unexpected opportunity presented itself. My current plan after these two weeks was to head up to Scotland, and spend the rest of the summer volunteering with NatureScot, and Mya had volunteering plans around Wales at different RSPB sites. One of the staff at the Rathlin West Light Team had just got a job opportunity elsewhere and that meant an opening was becoming available, just as we were about to leave. Mya applied for the job and got it! Surely after last year, we should have learnt that we couldn’t spend just two weeks on Rathlin at a time. Our plans were now to spend the rest of the Summer on Rathlin, not only volunteering but now working!
Staff life
As Mya was now a staff member, we moved out of the volunteer cottage on the West of the island, and moved into the staff house down in the harbour. This had the luxuries of wifi, lifts into work, and having the sea literally on your doorstep. We had gone swimming a few times last year and this time we came prepared with wet suits and snorkels. Living down in the harbour, we could get to our favourite swimming spots in only five or ten minutes, compared to the 90 minute hike from the volunteer cottage, and then having to walk back up afterwards, if you’re unfortunate enough to be unable to catch a lift.
Swimming on Rathlin is an amazing way of surrounding yourself in nature. Looking down and snorkelling, you see crabs scuttling between the forests of seaweed, and fish swimming right under you within arms reach. You can look up and watch terns flying above your head and diving into the water nearby for food. On the beach, you see ringed plovers picking through rocks and washed up seaweed looking foraging away, and looking out to sea, seals stare at you curiously, disappearing and reappearing closer, wandering what you’re up too.
Mothing
Last year, I was introduced to moths and the amazing hobby of moth trapping. I tried moth trapping for myself in the Easter of 2023 and was incredibly excited to attend some mothing mornings with Ric and Hazel, who run the Stickybeak blog and X (formally twitter) page. I attended dozens of early mornings excitedly walking towards the trap and seeing how many moths were on the outside of the trap and on surrounding vegetation, indicating what treasures could be held within the trap itself.
I wasn’t very knowledgeable with my moths but watching Ric and Hazel looking through the moth traps and being to rattle off all the common and scientific names of over 50 different species they found in the trap, I got familiar with them quickly. Asking them questions and chatting moths means I learnt a vast amount, not just on moths, but on the wide variety of the wildlife on Rathlin. Later in the summer I started joining them on walks around the bay to see what birds were present, mainly the waders. Some of my favourite rarer birds we spotted were lapwing, arctic tern, and sandwich tern.
The staff house conveniently had an outdoor light which I would use every clear, warm, and still night, to try and see what would visit in the night. The coast guard station, which doubles as the island’s fire station, makes an excellent permanent moth trap as there are a selection of always-on lights around the outside, and the building itself is pretty sheltered which makes it great for moths. I would have a nightly routine of walking around the bay and up to the coastguard hut and back down to the house seeing what moths would be visiting.
One night I did the usual round and came back to a moth I hadn’t seen before, happily resting on the front porch. This wasn’t unusual as I was seeing a lot of new moths which I was learning about. I would identify it with apps (my go-to is ObsIdentify) and books, and check Stickybeak’s Lepidoptera report to see what their status on Rathlin is. Excitingly, the moth in question this particular evening was a dark spinach moth, which is an amazing name in of itself, but after checking the Lepidoptera report, it got even more exciting as the most recent record on Rathlin was way back in 1939! I had to check with Ric and Hazel to confirm my ID of the moth, but once they had agreed with me, I had made the first Rathlin recording of a dark spinach moth in over 80 years!
Rathlin Rarities
Rathlin is in a prime position for being a temporary pit-stop for migrating birds. One of my favourite fleeting visitors to Rathlin was the Alpine Swift. One of our colleagues was on their day off going on their favourite walk, the Ballyconagan Trail on the North East of the island, and noticed an odd looking swift. Upon further inspection, and amazingly managing to get a clear video, she confirmed it as an alpine swift, a rarity in Northern Ireland. This was during a working day so as soon as I got home I grabbed my camera and binoculars and ran up to meet her at the trail. We got to the spot where she saw it and could see several groups of swallows, house martins, and most importantly, swifts. We both scanned each of the birds and eventually she spotted their Alpine cousin. After quite a while of her trying to point it out to me, I finally saw it. I couldn’t believe she managed to spot it in the first place, but once it came close you could see the white belly. I tried to get a photo but it was impossible to use auto-focus as the swift was far too small and moving too fast to lock on to. I ended up using manual focus and tracking the swift whilst eye-balling the focus and ended up with a photo that wasn’t half bad!
Rathlin is also a perfect place to see passing cetaceans, like dolphins and whales. Each day we would check the recent sightings from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group to see if there are any exciting sightings nearby and would spend lots of our spare time looking out to sea, with binoculars, spotting scopes, or just with the naked eye, to see who might visit us. A few weeks after we left last year, John Coe and Aquarius, a pair of orcas, were spotted between Rathlin and Islay. This made us very keen to spot one of the rarer sea visitors, like orca, thresher shark, or basking shark during our visit this year. Very excitingly, a basking shark was seen off of Rathlin, from the Roonivoolin Trail on the South of the island possibly heading West. Since we were both working that day, Mya had spent the rest of the day staring off Bull Point, South of the West Light, in order to try and get a glimpse if they passed us by. Sadly, the basking shark wasn’t spotted so I guess we’ll have to come back to Rathlin again in order to see one.
Although not a rare species, we watched a group of about 50 bottlenose dolphins passing by in several indistinct pods. This was interesting in that usually, you wouldn’t see that many bottlenose in one go, so was amazing to see such a large number of them passing by, some with calves swimming along side their parents, which made it particularly special. This also happened to be on a Tuesday morning, when the new volunteers are being inducted up at the centre, so for about half an hour they kept on getting radio messages of “dolphins passing by” every two minutes which hopefully made for a memorable first day for them.
I am not knowledgable on my flora so far, but when Stickybeak tweeted about a rare plant they had found on Rathlin, I was eager to learn more about it and find the plant myself. The plant in question is called Annual Knawel (Scleranthus annuus), and hadn’t been recorded on Rathlin for 135 years! It may appear simple and only be around 10 cm tall, but it’s a beautiful looking plant. This one specimen, the only known one at the time, was growing inconspicuously in a gateway and meant we were easily able to have a look after the day at work. Since then however, Ric and Hazel have found several other patches on the Island, making it the Annual Knawel capital of Northern Ireland!
Bird Flu
Rathlin, like so many places around the UK, and the rest of the world, has been suffering from ongoing brunt of bird flu. If you’re interested in a much more in depth and detailed report of the bird flu on Rathlin, this can be found in Stickybeak’s bird reports, but being at the colony almost every day, we were able to notice when more of the birds were dying. Luckily Rathlin was not as hard hit as other places, but it still had an impact, not just on the colony itself, but on the staff, volunteers, and the visitors too.
We were keeping records of all the number of dead birds we could see from the platform, and by early August we were seeing over a hundred dead birds, mostly kittiwakes, from the lighthouse every day. On a few occasions, we would even have sick kittiwakes on the platform itself, or the path leading down from the centre. When this happened, we had to close the platform off from the public and wait to see if the bird would leave, which they never did, and had to agonisingly watch them die without being able to help in any way. Seeing birds that are already dead is hard, but having to watch their condition slowly deteriorate and know there was nothing you could do to help was so much harder. You grow to love all the birds, get to know their personalities and quirks, and follow along their journeys from the platform, and watching all that come to an end is heartbreaking.
Properly settling in
After a month or so on Rathlin, we had really settled in. Getting ASDA deliveries delivered on the ferry every other week and the rotation of volunteers coming and going every week all felt like the norm. At the staff house, we would have weekly dinner parties where we all have homemade pizzas, pasta, or soup and would watch a movie together. It felt like we had been on Rathlin for years. We even had our favourite cows which we would all point out to each other on the drive to and from work. These cows included; Ore-moo, a belted galloway which I thought was a uniquely patterned cow who looked like they had a belt (I didn’t know of belted galloways at the time), an all-black cow with the only bit of white being on their butt and tail, and another was all brown with a white nose. Sometimes, I would wake up early to go for a walk around the bay and see what birds there were. A favourite of the waders I would usually see were the ringed plovers, with their cheepy calls and funny scuttle across the rocks.
Woodland and Mushrooms
Mid to late August was a perfect time to look for mushrooms and fungi. On Rathlin there’s plenty of grazed grassland so there’s no shortage of places to find grassland fungi, like waxcaps, but for woodland fungi, it’s a bit more of a challenge. There are few patches of trees, which you could just about call a woodland, but there’s only one proper woodland that’s publicly accessible, Kinramer Wood. This lies on the North Kinramer trail on the West end of the island and is a conifer plantation with larch and pine, which isn’t the most biodiverse but has enough trees for a good range of fungi to call it home.
We both went with one of our colleagues and we wandered around the woodland trying not to get our eyes poked out, but more importantly on the lookout for some funky fungi. The larch was covered in beard lichens and mosses giving it a very mysterious atmosphere, and with all the muted colours, the more colourful fungi pop out. We managed to see a lovely selection of toadstools, bracket fungi, and slime moulds. We were only able to somewhat confidently identify two, which were the shaggy parasol mushroom and the classic fly agaric. One which really stood out to me was a felt-like textured funnel. I came back to visit it a week or so later when it was more prominent and thought it might be some sort of Dyer's polypore.
Another surprise we found in the woodland was a primary feather of a long eared owl. Long ear owls breed on Rathlin and I might have seen one in the harbour one night as it swooped under a street light, but I wasn’t convinced, though there have been sightings of them throughout the year, with one from our manager on her way home from work one evening. Other owls are seen on Rathlin like short eared and tawny.
On our way back, we said hi to the goats, who now had pipes attached to their horns to stop them from sticking their heads through the fence and getting stuck, and went into the church yard, where fungi has been seen previously. To our delight we found a very cool looking coral fungus, which we think is smoky spindles (Clavaria fumosa).
Bird Ringing
Whilst on Rathlin, I had the amazing opportunity to help with bird ringing on one occasion. We were targeting storm petrels at the Rue, the Southern point of the island, and I was very excited as I had never done any bird ringing in the past.
We got there about an hour before sunset and set up the nets. The nets for bird ringing are formed in a series of rows stacked on top of each other with a lot of vertical slack to create a ‘pocket’ for the bird to drop into to be collected. These nets are placed in a V-shape with a speaker positioned in the middle, which plays the bird call to try and entice them to come in.
By the time we had finished setting up it was dark, and the supermoon had risen in the East. This was a beautiful sight over the sea, but sadly the complete opposite of what we wanted as a bright moon would mean there would be fewer petrels out and about. Now all we had to do was wait. Whilst we waited, we were using night vision binoculars to look around for the petrels, but they were also great for looking at other birds, bats, the nearby seals, but also for the (many) rats and even moths. I even managed to spot a large tall ship pass right by us which I would have never been able to have seen without them.
After almost an hour of listening to the bird calls, which stayed ingrained in my brain for several days afterward, we had our first (and only) storm petrel of the night! After retrieving them from the net, we attached a ring to their leg, recording the code on it, and took readings of their wing length and total weight. After this we released them and waited for another, but sadly we had no other visitors. I had never realised how small storm petrels were until I saw one fit very comfortably into the palm of a hand.
After this, we went up to the East lighthouse with the night vision binoculars to see if could see any manx shearwaters. Sadly we didn’t see any but we were able to appreciate the shining lighthouse at night with moonlit scenery of the heather and gorse.
The quiet season
By the end of August, the number of visitors are low, as the centre’s main selling point, the puffins, have left several weeks ago, and schools are nearing their return. The cliffs are also getting eerily quiet too as the kittiwakes depart, leaving only the fulmars. The fulmars are the last to leave and sadly they have been doing very poorly this year, with only around 5% of nests successfully fledging a chick compared to 30% in previous years. This is still low compared to ‘normal’ levels of fledging that would be around 60%. We had two fulmar chicks that we could see from the viewing platform, with a third only being visible from the cliff top above. We did have two other chicks which sadly didn’t make it, with one of them surprisingly being eaten by their parent after they had died.
As the few fulmar chicks fledged, we noticed some funny behaviour with the remaining adults. They seemed to gather in rather large numbers of small ledges all sitting there and loudly ‘talking’ to each other. We called them fulmar parties and we saw them move the party around the colony every few hours or so seeming as though they were playing a game of ‘how many fulmars can we fit on a ledge’. We didn’t see them do much apart from stand there looking confused or arguing with each other that they’re standing too close.
The quieter days also gave us plenty of time to clean and organise the visitor centre. Whilst cleaning up our collection of magazines, which the public can have a flick through, I came across one of those old junk mail-style ‘scratch and match’ tickets. Surprisingly it hadn’t been scratched off and I couldn’t resist to see if we could have won anything, with the prizes including a Goodmans MP3 player, Xbox 360, and an HD ready Sony TV. This ticket was from a long time ago, but the most exciting thing prize was a brand new mini cooper. The card had two games and you needed three matching symbols to be guaranteed a prize. To my amazement, not only had I matched three on the first game, but also the second. We were guaranteed two prizes! This elated moment was immediately extinguished when reading the terms and conditions. “Competition date closes 31/12/08”. We had been a decade and a half too late… Somewhere out there, there’s a brand new mini cooper with our name on it and sitting there unclaimed.
The quiet season also offered more time to watch out to sea, looking for dolphins and whales. We had many sightings of the odd porpoise and pod of dolphins but nothing too surprising to our disappointment.
One of the hardest moments for me was the failed fledging of our great black back gull chick, affectionately named “Her Majesty” amongst the staff and volunteers. We had watched her from her start, barring almost two weeks, but had seen her at the bottom of the cliff rummaging around the puddles and flu-ridden remains of kittiwakes every day. We were surprised she hadn’t succumbed to the bird flu after nibbling on almost every kittiwake, even when they were mostly green, and seemed unfazed, encouraging us she was immune to the flu. However, after no warning signs at all, we found her one morning lying amongst the kittiwakes in her eternal sleep. Hopefully she’s now up in birdy heaven eating all the kittiwakes her heart desires. The really gut-wrenching part was that black back gulls fledge 6-8 weeks after hatching and she hadn’t left after 9 weeks before her demise.
Until next year
Sadly, our time was coming to an end in early September and we had to say goodbye to the island we love so much. This will definitely not be the last time we come to Rathlin, as we have very much caught the ‘Rathlin bug’ and never want to leave once we arrive. I’m sure before long we will have bought a house on the island and will live the rest of our days looking at birds, moths, and all the other amazing wildlife Rathlin has to offer.
Written on 18th Oct 2023