Advertisement
Published: June 25th 2023
Edit Blog Post
After a beautiful week of champagne cycling along the route of the Shannon, my luck finally broke. Last week I traveled by train to Coleraine and was cycling to Ballycastle as a dark cloud grew to my right. I kept a watchful eye on the thunder cloud and with about 30 minutes cycling left, I thought I was going to make it.
Flash of lightning. Explosion of thunder. The sun disappeared and I was drenched. A wet start to my fortnight of volunteering at the RSPB Seabird Centre on Rathlin.
Fortunately the weather has been much kinder since I arrived on the island. Mostly sunny, occasional cloud and only a few showers.
I met my fellow volunteers in the cottage that afternoon. They had been working and living together for the previous week, but I was made to feel welcome and quickly settled in.
On Tuesday morning I met the rest of the fulltime staff who were equally welcoming.
At Blacktoft Sands last November I was helping with habitat management. It's a very different experience on Rathlin. It's more hospitality oriented. The aim is to help people enjoy and get the most of their visit to
see the seabird colonies surrounding the West Light.
The centre consists of three levels: a purpose built reception area, the main viewing platform and a lower viewing platform.
At reception visitors are welcomed and given a brief introduction to the site. The main points to note being; there are 98 steps down to the main viewing platform where you can see the puffins and that the only toilets are in the reception area.
Working at each level is a slightly different experience. At reception when The Puffin Bus arrives there is a buzz of activity as visitors enter and begin to orientate themselves.
I enjoy the uncertainty of what questions you could be asked. Mainly it's, where do we see the puffins?
Last week one gentleman arrived and told me he was 97. He didn't look any older than 70 I'd say. He was a very fit looking gent. An example to us all.
A French couple arrived on touring bikes. They stopped for a while outside the centre observing the auks on the cathedral like sea stacks you can see from the small carpark.
After I welcomed them I was asked the
difference between a penguin and a guillemot.
"Well, guillemots can fly, and penguins are only found in the southern hemisphere," I began.
"No, no," the French gent said and went over to the poster on the door by the retail counter and pointed at the guillemot and razorbill. I was thoroughly confused.
His partner got her phone out, punched something in and showed me the results. There was a picture of a razorbill under the title "petit pingouin". And so my knowledge of auk names in European languages has expanded a little more! A couple of weeks ago I met a Dutch couple at Loop Head who were trying to teach me the names in Dutch.
The main viewing platform is where the everyone wants to head for. Visitors can borrow a pair of binoculars and there are two telescopes available for closer views. Some people need more help than others to find the puffins.
A young family visited and I had to set the tripod to its lowest height for the youngest son. He found using the adult sized binoculars difficult and was disappointed that he could not see the puffins. You should have heard him
shout with delight when he spotted the orange feet that identified the black and white bird he found as a puffin before trying to see the colorful beak.
Most people are happy just to see the puffins. Sone people do go on to ask what the other birds are and ask about the health of the colony. Everyone admires the spectacle of the seabird city. A few tell me they don't need to know the names of the species to appreciate how beautiful and important a place this is.
To get to the lower platform you descend 68 more steps on the winding staircase through the lighthouse, pausing at several rooms of displays and exhibitions on the way.
It is much quieter here as most visitors don't venture this far down. It's a good place to see the vast extent of sea covered by auks and kittewakes, bathing, feeding, and socialising. It's also a good spot for practicing flight identification of seabirds. I practiced photographing the birds in flight too, a really difficult feat as they whizzed by so fast.
From here you can appreciate two other special features of The West Light. Firstly it is
an upside down lighthouse. The light is at the base is the lighthouse rather than at the top. Secondly the light flashes red, not white.
A few people asked me why the lenses constantly rotate, even when the light is off. I had to admit I didn't know, but added there is obviously a good reason.
On Thursday a family from Yorkshire visited. The father was quite interested in lighthouses and asked if I knew why the lenses rotated constantly. As I was again admitting I didn't know, he told me it was to reduce the risk of fire in strong sunlight. I thanked him for saving me having to look that up and realised I had heard it before but had forgotten.
I've really enjoyed my first week volunteering at the Seabird Centre. I find it very interesting to see the different expectations people have from their visit and what they want to get from it.
It is reassuring to know that whilst many people like to learn a little about what they are seeing, even those who just want to see puffins recognise the value of places like this.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.228s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0484s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb