A new musical craze has hit the west lighthouse this season on Rathlin, the cliffs are alive with the sound of Irish whistles. If you are lucky enough you might get serenaded as you arrive or depart on the puffin bus. Why not come pay us a visit and bring your own whistle or any other musical instrument u might play? Apologies in advance for any bum notes we are all beginners.
Our first volunteer of 2013 is Isabel Pantenburg who has very kindly joined us for a 6 week stint, and all the way from Neuwied in Germany. It turns out Isabel is a dab hand at drawing as you can see from the picture she has drawn of a Raven, great skills Isabel, well done!
Ravens are one of my favourate Rathlin birds and one of the main spectecles at the moment here at the Seabird centre so come and witness them for yourself. If you are lucky you may get to witness my crazy assistant Diarmuid doing a Raven impression.
For every member of staff the RSPB has 9 volunteers so we wouldn't be able to do the work we do without you guys, huge thanks. Here are three of our amazing volunteers. From left to right; Stuart from England, Isabel from Germany and last but not least Mariusz from Poland. Earlier in the season we had a wee lass from Sweden named Alexia and now we have been blessed with the presence of Len - also from England. It always blows me away how folk travel from afar to help us interpret the wildlife here on Rathlin and talk about the work of the RSPB. If you would like to find out more about residential volunteering with the RSPB on Rathlin Island or other RSPB reserves please visit http://www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering/residential.aspx
The rockstars of Rathlin, the Puffins returned today and were accompanied by lots of Guillemots and Razorbills also. Happy days. Why not pop over to RSPB Rathlin seabird centre and pay them a visit? The Puffins were spotted by our amazing volunteers Alexia Fish from Sweden and Isabel Pantenburg from Germany as they arrived for work this morning. I have added a wee picture of a puffin taken by one of our residential volunteers from last season, Cynfelyn Nancarrow-Lei.
Just a wee message to say that RSPB Rathlin Seabird Centre is now open 10:00 AM - 04:00 PM, seven days a week until 1st September. We have not seen any rock stars, the Puffins yet but we have been visited by thousands of Guillemots and Razorbills that seem to be yo-yoing backwards and forwards from the sea to their nesting sites on the cliffs and the Kittiwakes and Fulmars are settling in for the season also. The icing on the cake came yesterday though when we were visited by a great group of visitors including the lovely Grace Calderwood from Rasharkin who became our first RSPB member of the season, HUGE thanks for your support Grace. I have popped a nice picture of my amazing assistant Diarmuid and Grace (sorry for the poor picture quality).