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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.