Good morning birders, twitchers, twitchy birders, bitchy twirlers, Christian historians, and Star Wars fans!
My wife and I spent 16 days in Ireland in June, driving all the way around the island clockwise. Although we saw many noteworthy sights, the highlight was a boat trip to the Skellig Islands.
The Skelligs, off the coast of County Kerry in Southwest Ireland, consist of two small islands: Skellig Michael (aka Great Skellig) and Little Skellig. Tourist interest in Skellig Michael has exploded over the last few years after it served as Luke Skywalker’s hideaway in the two most recent Star Wars installments. However, it was of great interest to birders and history buffs long before then.
On the historical front, it features one of Ireland’s best preserved relics of early Christianity. It was settled between the 6th and 8th centuries by Gaelic monks, who braved the rough waters and steep slopes to build beehive huts 600 feet above the sea. Its foreboding location allowed it to survive the Viking raids that ravaged so many other Irish monasteries. It was abandoned, however, during the 12th or 13th centuries.
The islands are also among the most important seabird nesting sites in the North Atlantic. Skellig Michael reputedly has lots of puffins — but I didn’t want to get my hopes up because my past attempts at puffining were mostly frustrating.
Little Skellig, which is closed to human landing and can only be seen from a boat, is home to a spectacular gannet colony. About 70,000 of these elegant birds make their home here, the second largest colony in the world.
It is also home to a large colony of guillemots:
This manx shearwater was hiding in Luke Skywalker’s hut. Trying to photograph it without flash was even tougher than Rey trying to convince Luke to help the Resistance:
Unlike its little sibling, Skellig Michael permits human visitors — but the trip is tough for a number of reasons.
First, demand far exceeds supply. As SM is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Irish wildlife “Special Protection Area,” traffic is strictly limited. Only 180 visitors are permitted per day — 15 boats of 12 passengers — which is obviously far fewer than the number of Star Wars fans, birders, and Christians who visit Ireland every summer. Thus the trip must be booked weeks or months in advance. I booked the June trip in February and was fortunate to get a spot on the largest boat (and the only one with a bathroom).
Even if you book in advance, there is no guarantee you will go. The water is only calm enough for safe passage from mid May through late September. And even then, the trips are cancelled because of rough seas about 2 out of every 7 days. As the trips are booked solid, if yours doesn’t go then you’re probably out of luck. Also, “calm enough” is relative. Even on a good day it is a potentially vomitastic adventure, so you’ll want to bring dramamine.
Getting around the island is no joke either. To reach the monastery you must climb 600 stone steps, which can be slippery when it rains (and it’s Ireland, so it will probably rain). There are no guardrails between you and a sheer drop into — well, you saw Titanic. It’s not for those who are out of shape or afraid of heights, and kids are discouraged from visiting. There are also no bathrooms, running water, or shade.
I came mainly for the puffins — but I tried not to get too excited in advance. On our Iceland trip two years ago, I was repeatedly frustrated in trying to see them, getting only a couple of distant shots. Plus, we weren’t even sure our boat would make the trip. But we woke up early, watched RTE (the national TV station) for the weather forecast, and then left the TV on and saw this:
A kids cartoon about a puffin family that lives on a cliffside! How’s that for a good omen? Sure enough, the sky was mostly clear, the trip was on, and the island was. . .
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Puffin paradise!!!!
Seriously, they were everywhere. From the dock to just below the monastery, it was pretty much impossible to take a photo without a puffin in it.
It was a pufftastic, puffigasmic, puffinpalooza.
There are about 5000 puffin nests on Skellig Michael. They only stay until early August, so late-season trips to the islands will miss them.
They are so abundant that they presented a challenge for the Star Wars cinematographers, because it would have been prohibitively complicated to remove them digitally from every shot. Their solution was to create “porgs” — the adorable, merchandise-friendly creatures that inhabited Luke’s island — to superimpose digitally over the puffins. I had no idea about this connection when I saw The Last Jedi for the first time — but the porgs’ flight and behavior instantly struck me as puffin-like.
Thanks for reading! Please share your birdage from the past week.