Rathlin Stickybeak

✨ 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 - rathlinstickybeak.wordpress.com/2026/04/04/rat…

@RhysJon12067059 It was nice to catch sight of them at the right time - we always hear the Blackcaps so much more than we see them.

@_Stickybeak Thats fantastic! Great to see the first brood have made it

Barely seven weeks since Blackcaps returned to Rathlin and the next generation is already here! Saw our first fledgling this morning, being fed by mum in a spot where we've seen a pair nesting every year

@ViciousCheese We saw you have recorded it in a few places already... trailing in your wake as usual 😆

@_Stickybeak Huzzah! There is not a long time window to see these I think.

We'd been hoping to find the eggs of Parasyrphus nigritarsis on Rathlin this year - and here they are! This sneaky hoverfly lays its eggs among those of the Green Dock Beetle, and the larvae will prey on them when they hatch

@SteelySeabirder How bizarre! What an adventurous character 😄

Up there with one of the strangest encounters we've ever had on the Isle of May, this morning we had a juvenile Dipper! The blog explains: isleofmaynnr.wordpress.com Photo John Dryden

Still a scattering of waders stopping to feed on Rathlin during their migration - a Sanderling in Mill Bay today with a few Dunlins and Ruddy Turnstones, all in smart breeding plumage. Time for them to be continuing their journey north ⌛️

Also freshly minted juvenile Chaffinches appearing on Rathlin in recent days - not so different in plumage to an adult female, but standing out as more fluffy and dopey

@Calybites Happy news, that's great to see 😃👍

The young Nuthatches left the nest box just before 9am this morning. I can’t work out whether there were two, three or more! #Sittidae #VC64

Spotted Flycatcher has been late to arrive on Rathlin this spring, now suddenly this morning they were popping up all over the place. First at least one at Kinramer, then 3+ at Kebble, followed by another 2 together near the chapel. Hopefully we will see them nest this year 🤞

@SteelySeabirder Good luck to them 😃👍 Still eagerly waiting to see our first Eiderlings here, surely any day now

Morning. This will make your day :) Eider ducks and ducklings on the march to the open sea - this is from my front door :)

@Bird_Fan1 That's lovely, thank you! I was struggling to describe the call to someone earlier today... that clattery stony ricocheting cry is perfect.

@_Stickybeak Just read this and thought of you!! It is by Tom Paulin.

After yesterday's game of hide and seek, this morning the Chough has decided to show unbelievably well in Church Bay 🤯 Seems to like perching on the chimney of the Kelp Store and calling loudly from inside the building

@thremnir Found one of those on my sleeve recently, not sure how it hitchhiked indoors with me! The sparkly purple is rather beautiful.

At #Templemeeagh burying ground this afternoon - Common Fern Moth, Psychoides filicivora. There were loads of Hartstongue Ferns, and Spleenworts growing in the walls.

Our new Chough friend was ringed as a chick in May 2024, in the south of the Isle of Man - 100 miles from Rathlin in a straight line. Many thanks to Mark Fitzpatrick from @ManxRinging for sharing the details with us

@RhysJon12067059 It's really given us the run around - this morning we were watching it 90 minutes before we managed to see the ring properly 😆

@_Stickybeak @ManxRinging Outstanding work

Caught up with the Chough again this morning, hoping to check it for rings. A tricky customer while busy foraging, but eventually it sat on a fencepost for a while and we could read the code in the scope as ABZ. Probably a familiar bird to @ManxRinging? Should know more soon 🤞

@Bird_Fan1 It was a happy moment indeed to read that ring 😅 And what a bird to watch! It's quite a crazy character.

@_Stickybeak @ManxRinging Chuffing brilliant.

@Foulshaw2 It's a remarkable commitment isn't it, to keep them protected whatever the weather throws at you. It must be so boring too!

Summertime, and the living is easy... A very damp Blue 35 protects the eggs. Look how widely she has spread herself to keep the eggs warm and dry. Zoom in and you'll see the rain beading on her waterproof Osprey feathers. #FoulshawOspreys #Birds #Cumbria

@AHurky 😂

@_Stickybeak You didn't see a corncrake until someone replies, crex crex! ☺️

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 😆

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