Return of wandering fulmar

LAST month, I visited Rathlin Island, off the Antrim coast.

I like the beautiful the scenery, the warm people, the rich history and archaeology, and the abundant wildlife — but I’d never been there in winter.

I travelled the rough road to the west lighthouse (Rathlin, though not big, has three lighthouses). The area around this lighthouse is looked after by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, because it is one of the largest sea-bird breeding colonies in Ireland. This was January and I didn’t expect sea-birds to be there. I hoped for a glimpse of a peregrine or a raven.