We’d been looking at the terns on Maiden’s Rock and thought we’d drive up to the Vico to see if we could spot the Whitethroats which had once again returned to nest in the dense bracken and gorse between the path and the railway line. But it wasn’t the whitethroat that got us excited. We hadn’t even pulled up before my companion, Lucy, xclaimed there were dolphins in the bay! Sure enough there they were, their dorsal fins breaking the surface as they lunged out of the water. We thought for a while the little pod of three bottlenose dolphins which attracted so much affection and excitement in Killiney a few years ago had returned. But as we watched we realised there were four dolphins here and the more we watched them we came to realise that whatever they were, they weren’t the bottlenose. Although they were breaching out of the water they weren’t as dramatically exuberant as the bottlenose had been and their movements seemed slower and more deliberate. Although they were moving away from us we had the telescope and were able to follow their progress in it. The other marked difference from the bottlenose were these dolphin’s dorsal fins which seemed much taller and sickle shaped. In fact for a few moments I actually wondered could we possibly be looking at Orcas, or Killer Whales. We weren’t but it was the fact they resembled which was the clincher when I rang a knowledgeable friend and described them. He thought they might be Rissos dolphins and began to describe them saying they were often mistaken for Orcas. There had been regular sightings of a pod of Rissos along the east coast and from his description I’m certain that’s what we were looking at. As we watched them swim away they seemed to breach and dive in unison and looked like they were swimming four abreast, the four tall fins appearing out of the sea like a synchronised swimming team. A chap walked up from the beach almost in a daze with excitement after seeing them. he told us he’d never seen dolphins before and these had come in very close to the shore giving a great display. Haven’t seen them since but it certainly makes a scan of the sea potentially more exciting and there’s frequently porpoise passing by to have a look at even if we don’t see any dramatic dolphins.
  As I mentioned, we’d been watching the terns earlier that same evening and were heartened to see at least forty nesting on the rock. In May we’d taken out pebbles for them to use as a nest base and a replacement wooden nest box specifically designed for the rare Roseate Tern. We hadn’t had any roseates nesting on the rock since 2012 when that pair had deserted the rock after their nest had been washed over by a north easterly storm. So when we went down in early June we were delighted to see movement inside the box and then a roseate appeared out of it and was joined by a companion. As we watched them they actually began to mate outside the box and we were able to take some grainy ‘Paparazzi’ style photos of them. Afew weeks later Stephen Newton from Birdwatch went out and reported there were two eggs in the box as well as many other Arctic and Common terns’ eggs in nests on the rock. Our hopes were high for this year but on a lovely mild evening in early July we went down to have a look and were dismayed to find the rock seemingly completely empty of terns. We went down again later that night and could see just one solitary common tern sitting on a nest and that birds chances of raising young were very low if there weren’t other terns around to keep predators at bay. Stephen had gone out earlier in the week and found nearly all the nests deserted and the roseate eggs cold in the box.