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 Imagine listening to 10,000 screeching nesting roseate terns as the soundtrack to your life – night and day for three months.

Donnacha Woods from Wicklow and Brian Burke from Roscommon beat off the competition for the job of wardens on Rockabill Island  after Birdwatch Ireland advertised it last month.

Donnacha and Brian

The pair have spent the last week getting to know one another out on the tiny rocky island off the coast of Skerries in North County Dublin.

The island is off limits to the general public, but we got on opportunity to make the trip out there yesterday to check out how the new wardens are getting on.

Professor Stepehen Newton of Birdwatch Ireland who is heading up the project, said that they will be kept very busy, as they will have to count the numbers of terns breeding - how many have hatched and produced chicks and ensure there are no disturbances to the birds.

Just some of the screeching birds around the lighthouse

There are very few creature comforts on the island, which houses a basic cottage and a lighthouse. Donnacha and Brian only have about three hours worth of generator powered electricity a day, only have a cold shower to bathe under and their outdoor loo doesn’t actually flush.

The basic living conditions

They also have to rely on weekly visits for basic supplies. The lads don’t seem to mind however, saying that the birds are keeping them very busy. The one thing that they did both say that they would miss would be the World Cup which will take place during their isolated stint.

The birds on their nesting boxes