This gannet colony chooses an odd spot

IRELAND has a new gannet colony; the first to be established since 1988.

The birds have chosen a little promontory jutting like a large toe from the cliffs on the north side of Lambay, off the Dublin coast. The site is unusual in that it’s not a stack. Nor is it isolated from the rest of the island. Lambay seems an odd choice in another way; it’s inhabited.

Several hundred gannets took to resting on the promontory last year. This summer, eggs were laid; Steven Newton of BirdWatch Ireland recorded 57 nests on 27 June.