Coliemore - 24th of March

After a slightly ambitious attempt last year, I went with a smaller patch for this year. My intent is to focus on seawatching from Coliemore, as well as picking up a migrant or two in Dylan's Park. Having got Sooty Shearwater and a few Skuas from here last year, the main targets are Black Tern, Sabine's Gull and with a little bit of luck hopefully a Long-tailed Skua or Grey Phalarope.

The Patch

Met Eireann had forecast some nice south-easterlies for Monday and (for once) they were right - winds averaging around F5 to 6, gusting up 30+ knots at times... and good amounts of rain. Unfortunately it proved to be a rather quiet afternoon:

-Fulmar..................(31 south)
-Gannet .................(1 north/18 south)
-Kittiwake .............(1 north/48 south)
-Guillemot ..............(7 south)
-Ra/Gu ..................(12 south)
-Black Guillemot ....(4 north)
-Oystercatcher .......(4 south)
-Turnstone ..............(1 south)
-Purple Sandpiper ..(4 south)

Also present but not counted were Common Gull, Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull. Birds on the islands included two more GBBG's, plus some Shags and Cormorants on Maiden Rock, with Lamb Island hosting 3 each of Herring and GBB Gull and 46 Cormorants/Shags. A Pied Wagtail fed around the viewpoint at Coliemore Harbour. That gives a total of 14 species so far. Hopefully things will pick up a bit with tyhe easterly winds expected over the weekend and into next week.

Seawatching Hours: 2
Total: 2

South Dublin Coast - Update

Since the last update back in February, I have managed to get over the hundred species mark for the patch, which I didn't really think possible at the start of the year. These are the species that I managed to find since then:

(64) Curlew: One flew over Shanganagh on the 26th February. Small flocks noted on the patch through the summer.

(65) Red-breasted Merganser: A female flew past Coliemore during strong easterly winds on the 10th of March.

(66) Fieldfare: Several heard at around 11pm among thousands of Redwings flying east on the 10th of March.

Spring migrants arrived throughout April with Chiffchaff (67) on the 14th, a Swallow (68) the next day and Willow Warbler (69), as well as Sand Martin (70) on the 18th. A seawatch from Coliemore on the 21st added Sandwich Tern  (71) and Manx Shearwater (72), with several Wheatears (73) on Lamb Island plus Common Sandpiper (74) and House Martin (75) at Sorrento Point. The best spring migrant was a Grasshopper Warbler (76) heard singing for several minutes along the lower Shanganagh River on the 21st of April - only the third I have found in the patch. A Lesser Black-backed Gull (77) flew over shortly afterwards. A Mallard (78) on the 23rd was the last new species for April.

Manx Shearwater a few metres off Sorrento Point

May started well with a singing Sedge Warbler (79) along the Shanganagh River on the 1st and a Stonechat (80) along the Shanganagh Cliffs a few days later. The first Swifts (81) appeared on the 15th of May. I was away on work most of the rest May and June, so the next new species was a Crossbill (82) heard flying over the garden on the 25th of June.

Throughout July, I helped with the tern watches organised by the South Dublin Branch at Coliemore, so it was no surprise to add Arctic (83) and Common Tern (84) during the first watch there on the 9th of July. The tern colony on Maiden Rock was moderately successful with at least 15 chicks fledged. Unfortunately there was no breeding attempt by Roseate Tern this year and I had relatively few sightings of that species during the summer. Puffins (85) are quite rare locally, so it was good to get five flying north on the 9th of July. The rest of the month was fairly quiet, only managing to add another three species: a Dipper (86) on the Shanganagh River on the 15th.

Oystercatcher

Things picked up again in August, adding Tufted Duck (87), Dunlin (88), Redshank (89), Common Scoter (90) and Roseate Tern (91) during seawatches from Coliemore. Several Teal (92) and Wigeon (93) flew north past Coliemore at the end of the month.

A Buzzard (94) perched on a lamppost in Cherrywood was a bit of a lucky find at the start of September. For the rest of the month, I was hoping to concentrate on seawatching at Coliemore and trying to find migrants at nearby Sorrento Point, but the weather refused to play ball - light westerlies dominating almost the entire month. At one stage, Manx Shearwater passage was averaging about 0.3/hour over nine hours of seawatching. Despite this not exactly ideal conditions, I kept the patch list ticking over with Whimbrel (95) and Peregrine (96) in the middle of the month.

Sewatching did pick up at the end of the month, with both Great (97) and Arctic Skuas (98) past Coliemore on the 26th of September. So what species was going to be #99 and bring me up to 100%? Amazingly enough it was a Spotted Flycatcher looking quite miserable out on Lamb Island on the 30th. Noel Keogh had found one at Sorrento Point back in May, but which failed to hang around so I was delighted to get this "catch-up" patch tick! A Kestrel (100) was also hunting on the main Dalkey Island. Sorrento Point didn't hold any other migrants, but a scan out to sea did produce a rather jammy first-year Glaucous Gull (101) flying north to join a large feeding flock of gulls and auks between Dalkey Island and the Muglins. The same bird had been found by NTK at Kilcoole earlier that day. The good run continued with a Sooty Shearwater (102) flying south in awful conditions the next day, as well as a Grey Plover (103) heard calling over the garden on the 5th of October - the first garden record no less!

Coliemore at dawn

For the rest of the month I was out on the Celtic Explorer surveying the Celtic Sea (Grey Phal + Great Shearwater best birds) - of course the winds shifted easterly as soon as I was off the patch. Once I was back on dry land, I headed straight for Coliemore and more seawatching, noting a Great Northern Diver (104) on the 30th of October.

So all that leaves me on 104 species, 127 points and 105%.

South Dublin Coast - Week 3

After adding almost thirty species to the Patch list last time out, this week was much quieter with only two additions. Redwing continued to move through the area during the week, but unfortunately no sign of any Fieldfares or Snipe, two species I was hoping the cold snap would push towards the coast.

Killiney Bay - No bonus points for nice views though

 Started off on Saturday with a quick look in the "Magic Cove" at the northern end of Killiney Bay, which has held Black Redstarts in the past, but no sign of any this time around. A fly-past Rock Pipit was new for the Patch list though.

Magic Cove

From here it is a relatively short walk to Sorrento Point, a birding site I had never visited before. Icterine Warbler has been found here, as was a Frigatebird during a seawatch. The area near the tip of Sorrento Point is covered in dense hebe and other vegetation - hopefully enough to hold a Yellow-browed Warbler or flycatcher in autumn. A quick seawatch from here produced a few Gannets and three Red-throated Divers.  Around 150 Shags were gathered in one big group around the southern tip of Dalkey Island - possibly a pre-breeding gathering? Around twenty minutes into the seawatch there was a very impressive low-level flyby of the Coast Guard and Army helicopters through Dalkey Sound, the latter hanging around for a while to carry out exercises on Dalkey Island.

Does Common BlackHawk get 10 points?

 As it was high-tide, there were relatively few gulls in Bullock Harbour, the most notable of which was a second winter Mediterranean. A quick look around the Shanganagh River estuary added Grey Wagtail to the Patch list, while the Brambling returned to the garden on Sunday. Slightly galling were records of Little Gull and Waxwing seen by other observers on the patch during the week - would have been a nice few points.

The two new species bring the total to 57 species, 68 points and 57.57%. I'll post the full species list so far in a comment to this post. 

South Dublin Coast - Week 2

Having finally shaken off the cold from last week, I finally got a chance to do some birding on the patch. I started Saturday morning with a quick scan of Killiney Bay, which added a couple of local scarcities in the form of single Red-throated Diver and Shelduck. There was little else around so I moved on to Coliemore Harbour for an hours seawatching. Never having done any seawatching from here during the winter months, I was intrigued what may be around, especially with weather conditions quite favourable (moderate SE winds with on/off sleet). As it turns out, there was a small passage of Auks and Red-throated Divers, as well as seven Mediterranean Gulls and two Kittiwakes moving south. Not bad for January.

Purple Sandpipers occur in small numbers around the Dalkey Islands during the winter and I was delighted to find two feeding with Turnstones amongst the seaweed on Lamb Island. Further patch ticks included Grey Heron, Common Gull and Black Guillemot. Non-birding sightings included a Porpoise and about ten Grey Seals hauled up on Dalkey Island.

Dalkey Island

After almost freezing solid during the seawatch, I was glad of the walk to Bullock Harbour. Linnet, Goldcrest and Collared Dove were welcome patch ticks along the way. The harbour held the usual array of Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, as well as 11 rather tame Turnstones. Two or three Mediterranean Gulls were also mixed in amongst the Black-heads. One of the reasons I chose to include Bullock is to keep better track of the ringed Gulls which regularly turn up here. There were two present this week, a third winter Herring Gull (OJH) and a first-winter Great Black-backed Gull (1KH), both blue darvics.

Looking from Bullock Harbour towards Howth

Larus uglii

Sunday morning brought another patch tick in the form of Redwings, with several small flocks seen flying south along the coast during the day (displaced by the snow in the Dublin mountains and further up the coast?). At lunch time I headed over to Shanaganagh Beach, hoping for one or two Little Gulls blown in on the easterly winds. Three white-winged gulls were amongst the gulls feeding offshore, unfortunately Mediterranean rather than Little. A couple more Gannets and Red-throated Divers were about the best of it in worsening weather conditions. At least the garden contributed a patch tick in the form of Redpoll, with the female Brambling putting in another appearance at the feeders.

The totals for the first two weeks then are 55 species, 66 points and  55.56%.

Shanganagh Beach looking towards Bray Head