Boatswain Bird Island

Boatswain Bird Island is a flat-topped stack off Ascension's eastern coast, and when feral cats overran the main island in the nineteenth century the seabirds retreated to it, so that for well over a century almost the entire breeding population of several species survived on this one rock. Cats were eradicated from Ascension in the 2000s and the birds have begun returning to the mainland. Landing on the stack is not permitted.

Background

Boatswain Bird Island, also spelt Boatswainbird Island, sits some 270 metres from Ascension's east coast and covers approximately 5.3 hectares. A natural arch cuts through its southern coast. It is a different place from Boatswain Bird Rock, a far smaller rock of about 10 by 5 metres that stands 570 metres south-east of the island. The island is an Important Bird Area, with 6,000 pairs of Ascension frigatebirds, 5,000 pairs of black noddies, 1,500 pairs of Madeiran storm petrels, 1,300 pairs of masked boobies, 1,000 pairs of white-tailed tropicbirds and 500 pairs of red-billed tropicbirds. Cat and rat eradication on the main island has run since the mid-1990s.

Source: Wikipedia, "Boatswain Bird Island"

What you'll find

• The stack - the flat-topped rock the seabirds retreated to.
• The refuge history - a single rock that held the island's seabirds for a century.
• The eradication - the cat removal from the main island in the 2000s.
• The recolonisation - seabirds now returning to the Ascension mainland.

When to go

Year round; seabirds breed through much of the year. The eastern coast is exposed and windy. Viewing is from the clifftop opposite.

Good to know

Landing is not permitted and the island is viewed from a distance; binoculars are needed. The clifftop is exposed with unfenced drops. Access to Ascension itself is difficult.

Nearby

Wideawake Fairs are south, and Georgetown is west.

Key facts