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.