Rathlin Stickybeak
@_Stickybeak
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Two nature nerds on Rathlin Island. Authors of the annual Rathlin Bird Report and avid recorders of the island's biodiversity - well over 2,100 species so far!
Rathlin Island
Joined May 2015
✨ Rathlin Bird Report 2025 ✨ Our 8th annual report, as usual jam-packed with everything you wanted to know about the island's birds in 2025... and no doubt lots more that you never realised you wanted to know! Read it here - https://t.co/WWBWvb29mm
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More Chough action today - where has it been since Saturday?! Initially seen in the south of the island, then we actually heard it from indoors as it flew over the harbour heading west... will it stick around? (pics are from Saturday's sighting) #WindowWildlife
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Wandered up the road this afternoon hoping to hear a Corncrake, and suddenly it was RIGHT THERE in full view - we almost never see them as well as this! What an amazing and weird bird, somehow quite like a glove puppet 😆
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Happy to find Roseroot in flower on Rathlin this week - some with lots of golden blooms, some strikingly red, and some with last year's seedheads still attached #WildflowerHour
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Also interesting to find this patch of Myosotis yesterday, with two very similar species growing side by side. Field Forget-me-not looks similar to Wood Forget-me-not in almost every way, but with tinier flowers #WildflowerHour
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Noticed many patches of Blinks this weekend - #tinyplants with absolutely miniscule flowers and seedheads that are worth close inspection. Seeds of this one look knobbly all over, so think we have subspecies chondrosperma 🧐 #WildflowerHour
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Field Madder and Lesser Trefoil now flowering on the shore of Rathlin, hopefully both counting as #tinyplants for this week's #WildflowerHour
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And happy news for anyone following the soap opera of this special pale Razorbill, affectionately known to us as Mrs Cappuccino. Yesterday she was busy preparing to lay, and this morning our favourite couple have a lovely fresh egg! #SuperSeabirdSunday
So pleased to see our favourite unusually pale Razorbill back on Rathlin today- this is the 5th consecutive breeding season we have seen her occupy this spot. Also spied on a pair of Fulmars mating, and a flotilla of Puffins below the cliffs #SuperSeabirdSunday
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Last year the Common Guillemots had an early season on Rathlin, with the first egg seen on 30th April. This year is at the other extreme, 2 days later than our previous latest first egg.
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Common Guillemots eggs are now appearing on Rathlin - spotted a few this morning, at last! This is the latest start to their nesting season that we have seen #SuperSeabirdSunday
Still searching for the first Common Guillemot eggs this year, although it's been too windy on the clifftop to look very closely. See if you can spot one amongst this lot 🧐
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Enjoyed close views of the last few Purple Sandpipers again today just before they head north. We've never seen them here later than 16th May... will they be gone tomorrow?
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A CHOUGH! A CHOUGH! A CHOUGH! Just flew over Kebble heading east, our first sighting on Rathlin since 2018 🤯🤩🥳
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Still searching for the first Common Guillemot eggs this year, although it's been too windy on the clifftop to look very closely. See if you can spot one amongst this lot 🧐
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Many Razorbills are now incubating eggs, much to the Ravens' delight! Always impressive to watch the skill and audacity of these master egg-stealers. This wily Raven made repeated raids today, carrying each egg away over the cliffs before returning for the next #RavenMisbehavin
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Rathlin has a small colony of Sand Martins but usually they are busily whizzing about and we don't often get to see them perched. So it was nice to appreciate a close view of this one yesterday, by sneaking up slowly in the mobile bird hide
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At least 5 Purple Sandpipers still in Church Bay this morning - all now in speckly brown summer plumage, nice and tubby ready to migrate. In each of the last 3 years our final spring sighting has been on 16th May, so we're getting ready to say farewell 🥲
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It's finally started! Quite late this season, but exciting to see the first Razorbill eggs appearing on Rathlin in the last few days. Still not seen a Common Guillemot egg yet, but surely any day now
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The product of last month's shenanigans has arrived! This rather gormless baby Dunnock was innocently minding its own business until a rabid Robin took offense and chased it away - not exactly a friendly welcome to the neighbourhood
This frisky pair of Dunnocks gave us plenty of entertainment from the kitchen window yesterday - they were at it all afternoon, endlessly chasing around. After all that build-up, the magic moment was rather underwhelmingly brief 😄 #WindowWildlife
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Strong disapproving vibes from this pair of Stonechats while passing by the other day, and it's no wonder either - they have three fledglings fresh out of the nest, already full of the same attitude as their parents
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Common Guillemots appearing in impressive numbers on Rathlin yesterday and lots of activity everywhere... although sometimes one doesn't know quite where to look 🫣😆 #SuperSeabirdSunday
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Thrift looking great along the cliffs this week, and even better alongside thousands of Common Guillemots and a Peregrine Falcon. Sea Campion also booming now, interesting to find some affected by anther smut #WildflowerHour
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